»       «. 

V 


After  a  portrait  by  Lucas  Cranach  now 
in  the  Kaufmann  Gallery,  Berlin 


By  permission  of  the  Berlin  Photographic  Co. 


&t- 


Copyright,  1910,  1911,  by 
THE  CENTURY  Co. 


Published  October,  iqil 


THE  DE  VINNE  PRESS 


TO  MY  WIFE 

WHOSE  INSIGHT  AND  HUMAN  SYMPATHIES  HAVE 

HELPED    ME   TO    INTERPRET   ONE   OF 

THE   MOST    HUMAN    OF   THE 

WORLD'S  GREAT  MEN 


223936 


•:•  '    -  . 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


i  BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH  .......  3 

ii  LIFE  AS  A  MONK        22 

ni  VISIT  TO  ROME 37 

iv  PREACHER,    PROFESSOR,     AND     DISTRICT- 
VICAR  46 

r-  v  THE  AWAKENING  REFORMER     .     .     .     .66 

-<vt-  THE  ATTACK  ON  INDULGENCES  ....  76 

vii  THE  GATHERING  STORM 101 

vin  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  CONFLICT  WITH 

ROME in 

ix  THE  LEIPSIC  DEBATE 131 

x  THE  DEVELOPING  CONTROVERSIALIST  .  .  147 

xi  THE  NATIONAL  REFORMER 158 

xii  THE  PROPHET  OF  A  NEW  FAITH  .  .  .  172 

xni  THE  FINAL  BREAK  WITH  ROME  .  .  .  181 

xiv  THE  DIET  OF  WORMS 19 i\ 

xv  AT  THE  WARTBURG 210 

xvi  THE  CONFLICT  WITH  RADICALISM  .  228 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

xvii  THE  PEASANTS'  WAR 250 

xvm  THE  BREAK  WITH  HUMANISM  ....  262 

xix  MARRIAGE 273 

xx  HOME  LIFE 289 

xxi  THE  FORMATION  OF  A  NEW  CHURCH  .  305 

xxii  LUTHER  AND  ZWINGLI 325 

xxni  AT  COBURG 336 

xxiv  RELIGION  AND  POLITICS 348 

xxv  THE  BIGAMY  OF  THE  LANDGRAVE  PHILIP  361 

xxvi  THE  END  AND  AFTER 368 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Luther  in  1526 Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

Martin  Luther's  Father 4 

Martin  Luther's  Mother 7 

House  at  Eisleben  shown  as  Luther's  Birthplace  ...  10 

Bronze  Statue  of  Martin  Luther  in  Eisleben    ....  13 

The  Lilie  Inn  at  Erfurt,  which  Luther  is  said  to  have 

frequented 17 

The  University  at  Erfurt,  where  Luther  was  a  student  20 

Johann  von  Staupitz 29 

Cloister  of  the  Augustinian  Monastery  in  Erfurt  ...  32 

Chapel  of  the  Augustinian  Monastery  in  Erfurt     ...  32 

Pope  Alexander  VI 39 

Pope  Julius  II 42 

Present  Appearance  of  the  Market-place  at  Wittenberg  50 

George  Spalatin 55 

Christopher  Scheurl,  the  Jurist 58 

Wittenberg  on  the  Elbe,  Saxony 63 

Lucas  Cranach,  painted  by  himself 64 

Pope  Leo  X,  by  Raphael 81 

Albert,  Prince  of  Brandenburg,  Elector  and  Archbishop 

of  Mayence 85 

Present  Appearance  of  the  Castle  Church  in  Wittenberg  92 

Dr.  Pfeffinger 102 

Frederick  the  Wise 107 

ix 


x  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING  PAGE 

Exterior  of  the  Cathedral  at  Augsburg 119 

Cloisters  of  the  Cathedral  at  Augsburg 119 

Conrad  Peutinger,  the  Augsburg  Humanist 122 

Exterior  of  the  Fugger  House  at  Augsburg 129 

Jacob  Fugger  of  Augsburg 129 

Maximilian  I,  Emperor  of  Germany 134 

Francis   I   of   France,  defeated   Candidate   for  the   Im- 
perial Throne  of  Germany 139 

Duke  George  of  Saxony 144 

Ulrich  von  Hutten 167 

The  Ruins  of  Ebernburg,  the  Stronghold  of  Franz  von 

Sickingen 170 

Franz  von  Sickingen 170 

Luther  in  1520 180 

His  earliest  known  likeness 

Philip  Melanchthon 189 

Luther  in   1521 197 

The  Luther  Memorial  at  Worms 204 

The  Cathedral  at  Worms,  which  was  standing  in  Lu- 
ther's time        204 

Luther's  Appearance  while  secluded  in  the  Wartburg   .  212 

Western  Side  of  the  Wartburg 221 

Pope  Hadrian  VI 230 

Thomas   Miinzer 235 

A  Letter  from  Luther  to  Thomas  Cromwell     ....  260 

Erasmus 269 

Luther's  Wife,  Katharine  von  Bora,  in  middle  life    .     .  276 

Luther's  Wife,  Katharine  von  Bora,  in  1526    ....  285 

Present  Appearance  of  the  Martin  Luther  House  in 

Wittenberg 292 

Bugenhagen,  1537 301 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xi 

FACING  PAGE 

Ulrich   Zwingli 326 

Marburg  Castle  from  the  South 331 

The  Fortress  of  Coburg .338 

Luther's  Room  in  the  Coburg 351 

Pope  Paul  III 355 

Elector  John  Frederick,  1531 356 

Landgrave  Philip  of  Hesse  in  1534 .  365 

Martin  Luther  in  1533 366 

Martin  Luther 370 

Charles  V,  King  of  Spain  and  Emperor  of  Germany  .     .  375 

The  House  in  Luther's  Native  Town,  Eisleben,  in  which 

he  died 378 

The  Graves  of  Luther  and  Melanchthon  in  the  Castle 

Church  at  Wittenberg 383 


MARTIN  LUTHER 


MARTIN   LUTHER 

THE  MAN  AND  HIS  WORK 


CHAPTER  I 

BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH 

men  need  not  that  we  praise  them;  the 
need  is  ours  that  we  know  them.  They  are  our 
common  heritage.  Whether  we  be  of  their  faith  or  of 
another,  whether  our  fathers  fought  with  them  or  with 
their  enemies,  whether  we  stand  where  they  stood  or 
have  traveled  far  on  ways  they  dreamed  not  of,  we  are 
the  richer  that  they  lived. 

This  shafl  be  a  plain  and  literal  tale.  If  its  hero  will 
but  speak  for  himself  and  we  may  enter  into  some 
degree  of  intimacy  and  gain  some  measure  of  acquain- 
tance with  him  as  he  was,  this  writing  will  not  be  vain. 
\  He  was  very  human,  this  hero  of  ours,  fiery-tem- 
pered, passionate,  imperious,  lovable  withal,  warm- 
hearted, and  generous  to  a  fault.  Full  of  contradictions, 
he  had  the  frankness  and  carelessness  of  genius,  and 
what  he  was  he  showed,  and  what  he  thought  he  said, 
without  concealment  or  diplomacy.  Like  a  Cromwell 
or  a  Napoleon  in  his  masterful  will,  he  was  like  our 
own  Lincoln  in  his  human  sympathies,  his  simplicity  of 
character,  his  transparent  honesty.  Like  him  he  was 


4  •<*MARTIN  LUTHER 

tod  in  m'6.  quickness  of  perception,  his  quaint  humor, 
and  his  homeliness  of  speech. 

He  came,  as  so  many  of  the  world's  great  men  come, 
of  peasant  stock.  "I  am  a  peasant's  son;  my  father, 
my  grandfather,  and  my  great-grandfather  were  genu- 
ine peasants,"  he  was  accustomed  to  say,  not  without 
a  touch  of  pride,  and  in  spite  of  his  opinion  that  ".there 
is  as  little  sense  in  boasting  of  one's  ancestry  as  in  the 
devil's  priding  himself  on  his  angelic  lineage."  He 
was  of  the  common  people  and  was  glad  of  it.  It  was 
one  of  the  secrets  of  his  power.  "Rich  folks'  children," 
he  once  remarked,  "seldom  turn  out  well.  They  are 
complacent,  arrogant,  and  conceited,  and  think  they 
need  to  learn  nothing  because  they  have  enough  to  live 
on,  anyway.  On  the  contrary,  poor  men's  sons  must 
labor  to  lift  themselves  out  of  the  dust  and  must  endure 
greatly.  And  because  they  have  nothing  to  boast  about 
or  pride  themselves  upon,  they  trust  God,  control  them- 
selves, and  keep  still.  The  poor  fear  God,  therefore 
He  gives  them  good  heads  that  they  may  study,  become 
educated  and  intelligent,  and  be  able  to  assist  princes, 
kings,  and  emperors  with  their  wisdom." 

Luther's  family  was  not  of  the  lowest  class.  For 
generations  his  ancestors  had  owned  their  house  and 
farm  in  the  village  of  Mohra  on  the  western  side  of 
the  Thuringian  hills.  There  are  still  Luthers  in  the 
same  tiny  hamlet,  changed  perhaps  as  little  as  the  place 
itself.  Common  custom,  admirably  careful  of  those 
most  needing  care,  made  the  youngest  child  heir 
of  the  ancestral  home,  and  Hans  Luther,  an  older  .son, 
after  marrying  Margarethe  Ziegler,  a  maiden  of  good 
family  from  the  neighboring  town  of  Eisenach,  went 
out  to  seek  his  fortune  in  the  larger  world.  Sign  of 
character  that,  and  promise  of  more  heroic  venture  in 
his  first-born.  It  does  not  need  the  wilds  of  a  new- 


From  the  painting  by  Lucas  Cranach-in  the  Wartburg,  Eisenach 

MARTIN  LUTHER'S  FATHER 


BOYHOOD  AND  YOTJTfT  V  •      '••'5' 

found  land  and  leagues  of  untrackeci  forest  to  : make: 
the  pioneer.  From  Mohra  to  Eisleben,  the  principal 
town  in  the  county  of  Mans f eld,  where  Hans  and 
Margarethe  first  tried  their  fate,  was  only  a  scant  four- 
score miles,  but  it  was  the  cast  of  the  die.  A  new 
home  and  a  new  life  were  theirs  at  once.  The  Mohra 
boy  became  the  founder  of  a  new  branch  of  his  house 
in  a  new  land,  and  the  farmer's  son  became  a  miner. 
It  was  a  rich  and  beautiful  country.  "Whom  the  Lord 
loves  He  gives  a  home  in  the  county  of  Mansfeld," 
runs  an  old  proverb,  and  what  was  more  to  the  point 
in  the  eyes  of  Hans,  mining  was  a  prosperous  industry 
in  the  copper-veined  hills  of  the  eastern  Harz. 

In  Eisleben  the  first  child  was  born  on  the  night  of 
the  tenth  of  November,  1483.  He  was  baptized  the 
next  day  and  named  Martin  in  honor  of  the  saint 
whose  feast  it  was.  Honor  enough  for  any  saint,  and 
honor  enough  it  might  seem  for  any  town.  But  where 
he  first  saw  the  light  he  came  back  to  die,  and  Eisleben 
still  shows  with  reverent  pride  both  house  of  birth  and 
house  of  death.  Little  she  saw  of  him  in  the  interval, 
for  when  he  was  only  six  months  old  the  hope  of  better 
fortune  led  his  parents  to  the  neighboring  town  of 
Mansfeld.  Here  they  lived  to  a  good  old  age,  a  sturdy 
couple,  "spare,  small,  and  brown";  and  here  the  boy 
grew  up  under  the  shadow  of  dark  and  wooded  cliffs 
crowned  by  the  castle  of  the  counts  of  Mansfeld  and 
pierced  by  the  shafts  of  the  mines.  It  was  a  thriving, 
busy  place;  a  place  of  rude  and  arduous  toil,  with 
fortunes,  as  fortunes  went  in  that  day,  often  easily 
made  and  more  easily  lost. 

For  Hans  and  Margarethe  worldly  success  came  but 
slowly.  The  means  of  the  growing  family  were  scant 
enough.  Often  the  mother  was  reduced  to  the  un- 
wonted necessity  of  carrying  home  from  the  forest 


6  MARTIN  LUTHER 

fuel  for  the  hearth.  But  in  time  the  days  of  narrow 
circumstance  passed.  Industry,  frugality,  and  integ- 
rity ultimately  triumphed.  Hans  became  the  propri- 
etor of  two  furnaces  of  his  own  and  the  possessor  of 
a  comfortable  house  in  the  principal  street,  and  at  his 
death  left  a  property  by  no  means  contemptible  for  the 
time  and  place.  He  was  a  substantial  man,  with  the 
self-respect  and  pride  of  one  who  has  bettered  himself 
in  life  by  his  own  exertions. 

It  is  often  easy,  in  looking  back,  to  find  even  in 
humble  parents  traits  that  account  more  or  less  satis- 
factorily for  the  genius  of  a  child  far  greater  than 
themselves.  But  it  is  only  the  child's  career  that  makes 
such  traits  conspicuous.  v  No  one,  we  may  believe, 
would  have  selected  Hans  and  Margarethe  for  the  par- 
ents of  one  of  history's  greatest  figures.  And  yet  the 
honesty  and  sturdy  common  sense  which  made  the 
father  a  trusted  friend  of  the  counts  of  Mans f eld,  and 
a  trusted  counselor  of  the  town,  the  vigor,  courage, 
and  self-reliance  which  enabled  him  to  win  and  keep 
success,  the  sanity  and  independence  which  marked 
his  attitude  toward  religion,  as  toward  other  things  in 
life,  gather  significance  in  the  light  of  what  came  after. 
It  was  a  characteristic  reply  he  made  to  a  priest  who 
was  offering  consolation  as  he  lay  critically  ill,  and 
was  exhorting  him  to  make  his  peace  with  God  by  giv- 
ing money  to  the  clergy :  "I  have  many  children.  I  will 
leave  my  property  to  them;  they  need  it  more."  Pious 
he  was,  in  his  way,  and  a  loyal  member  of  the  church, 
but  he  put  the  ordinary  human  obligations  and  respon- 
sibilities above  all  else  and  to  them  he  was  always 
faithful. 

Significant  also  were  the  cheerful  temper  and  whole- 
some humor  of  the  mother.  She  looked  always  on 
the  brighter  side  of  life,  and  met  even  bitter  expe- 


Copied  from  the  original  portrait  by  E.  A.  Schmidt 

MARTIN  LUTHER'S  MOTHER 

From  the  painting  by  Lucas  Cranach  in  the  Wartburg,  Eisenach 


BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH  7 

riences  with  a  smile.  It  was  a  favorite  saying  of  hers, 
which  Martin  loved  to  repeat,  "If  the  world  smiles  not 
on  you  and  me  the  fault  is  ours."  She  was  imaginative 
and  sensitive,  the  prey  of  all  sorts  of  conflicting  emo- 
tions, and  she  lived  in  devout  and  fearsome  bondage 
to  much  that  her  husband  must  have  laughed  at.  Mans- 
feld,  with  its  somber  woods  and  cavernous  hills,  was 
a  congenial  haunt  of  gnomes  and  fairies.  Of  the 
blacker  sort  they  were  apt  to  be.  "In  the  mines,"  as 
Luther  once  said,  "the  devil  teases  and  deceives 
people,  makes  a  racket,  and  calls  up  specters  before 
their  eyes  until  they  think  they  see  a  great  heap  of  ore 
and  pure  silver  where  there  is  none  at  all.  For  if  he 
can  bewitch  and  fool  men  even  above  ground,  by  clear 
day,  in  the  light  of  the  sun,  so  that  things  look  other 
than  they  are,  he  can  do  it  still  better  in  the  mines." 
Margarethe  felt  the  spell  of  the  evil  spirits,  and  their 
terror  long  lingered  with  the  boy  Martin.  On  one 
occasion  she  thought  herself  and  her  children  be- 
witched by  an  unfriendly  neighbor,  and  there  was 
much  ado  to  escape  the  curse. 

Her  oldest  born  was  his  mother's  boy.  When  he 
reached  maturity  he  looked  remarkably  like  her  in  face 
and  "figure;  and  like  her  he  was  in  temperament  and 
disposition,  with  the  stability  and  strength  of  his 
father's  homely  sense  and  obstinate  will.  In  later 
years  his  mother  used  to  say  with  pride  that  he  was  a 
dependable  boy,  the  monitor  of  his  brothers  and  sisters, 
to  whom  they  all  looked  up,  the  inseparable  companion 
and  peculiar  champion  of  his  next  younger  brother, 
James. 

Martin  was  not  a  pampered  child.  Hans  and  Mar- 
garethe took  their  parental  responsibilities  seriously 
and  interpreted  them  rigorously.  Both  at  home  and  in 
school  discipline  was  harsh  and  sympathy  scant  for 


8  MARTIN  LUTHER 

childish  fun  and  frolic.  The  rule  was  that  of  the  rod. 
Looking  back  upon  his  childhood,  the  grown  man 
could  see  little  of  joy  or  cheer  in  it.  Public  opinion, 
when  he  was  young,  was  much  stricter,  he  tells  us, 
than  in  later  days  in  the  matter  of  games,  card-playing, 
dancing,  theater-going,  and  sports  of  various  kinds, 
and  his  parents  were  of  the  strictest.  They  believed  in 
work,  not  play.  On  one  occasion,  for  taking  a  trivial 
nut,  he  was  beaten  by  his  mother  until  the  blood  came. 
Reflecting  upon  it  in  later  years,  he  was  accustomed  to 
assert  with  emphasis  that  discrimination  and  modera- 
tion ought  to  be  specially  exercised  in  the  government 
of  children.  With  them  "the  apple  ought  always  to 
lie  beside  the  rod."  And  the  serious  effect  upon  the 
character  of  an  over-strenuous  discipline  he  depicted 
in  the  words,  "Where  such  fear  enters  a  man  in  child- 
hood, it  can  hardly  be  rooted  out  again  as  long  as  he 
lives.  As  he  once  trembled  at  every  word  of  his  father 
and  mother,  to  the  end  of  his  life  he  is  afraid  of  a 
rustling  leaf." 

It  is  difficult  to  associate  such  consequences  with  the 
great  reformer,  whose  courage  was  his  most  conspicu- 
ous trait,  but  he  spoke  out  of  his  own  experience,  and 
knew  whereof  he  spoke.  Though  he  recognized  that  his 
parents  loved  him  and  meant  well  by  him,  their  sever- 
ity made  so  painful  an  impression  on  him  that  in  later 
life  he  held  them  responsible  for  his  unhappy  resolution 
to  become  a  monk,  and  in  his  treatment  of  his  own 
children  he  tried  to  make  up  to  them  for  the  sympathy 
he  had  lacked  and  the  harshness  he  had  suffered.  And 
yet  he  is  not  the  only  boy  by  any  means  in  that  day,  or 
this,  who  has  been  angered  by  a  beating,  and  has  found 
it  hard  to  be  reconciled  again  to  his  father.  And  if 
fifteen  whippings  in  a  single  morning  at  school  are 
rather  more  than  most  are  called  upon  to  endure,  in 


BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH  9 

Martin's  case  there  may  well  have  been  exceptional 
provocation.  A  merry,  high-spirited  boy  he  doubtless 
was,  mischievous,  perhaps,  and  fond  of  practical  jokes, 
as  in  later  years.  Stupid  and  vicious  he  certainly  was 
not,  and  kindlier  handling,  as  he  often  said,  would 
equally  have  met  the  need.  Without  doubt  he  was 
treated  as  well  as  other  boys  of  his  class.  That  he  was 
to  become  a  great  man  nobody  then  realized,  and  yet  it 
is  only  because  he  was  a  great  man  that  we  know  any- 
thing about  his  boyhood  trials  and  grievances,  and,  as 
he  himself  appreciated,  there  are  worse  things,  after 
all,  than  rough  treatment. 

The  public  school,  where  he  started  so  young  that  he 
often  had  to  be  carried  to  and  fro  by  an  older  com- 
panion, was  poor  enough.  In  such  a  town  it  is  apt  to 
be.  The  methods  were  crude  and  the  instructors  ineffi- 
cient, and,  as  was  too  often  the  case,  they  tried  to  make 
up  for  their  own  shortcomings  by  domineering  treat- 
ment of  the  pupils  under  their  care.  The  schools  in  his 
boyhood  were  "hell  and  purgatory,"  Luther  once  said. 
But  the  grown  man  who  later  condemned  both  school 
and  teachers  unsparingly  judged  them  from  the  van- 
tage-ground of  a  larger  world  and  an  improved  sys- 
tem; for  in  education,  as  in  many  other  things,  a  new 
world  was  in  the  making  while  he  lived.  Whereas  in 
his  youth,  he  once  declared,  it  took  almost  a  lifetime 
to  acquire  enough  Latin  to  say  mass,  now  children 
studied  it  with  pleasure  and  mastered  the  language 
easily  and  rapidly.  "Is  it  not  known  to  everybody,"  he 
wrote,  with  his  customary  vehemence,  "that  boys  are 
now  so  well  prepared  that  in  their  fifteenth  or  eigh- 
teenth year  they  have  more  knowledge  than  they  could 
formerly  get  in  all  the  high  schools  and  cloisters  put 
together?  What  did  they  learn  in  those  days  except 
to  be  donkeys,  logs,  and  blocks  ?  They  studied  twenty 


io  MARTIN  LUTHER 

and  even  forty  years,  and  then  knew  neither  Latin  nor 
German." 

That  Martin  was  sent  away  to  school  to  the  city  of 
Magdeburg  at  thirteen,  instead  of  being  kept  at  home 
to  aid  in  the  support  of  the  family,  speaks  volumes 
both  for  the  boy  and  for  his  parents.  It  is  true  he  once 
confessed  that  he  was  not  a  success  at  mining.  Not 
altogether  to  his  regret,  Satan  had  begrudged  him  the 
gift  of  discovering  the  hidden  metal.  Evidently  he  had 
been  obliged  to  try  his  hand  at  it  while  still  a  young 
lad.  His  want  of  skill  may  have  had  something  to  do 
with  the  decision  to  give  him  a  schooling,  but  his  men- 
tal gifts  were  the  determining  factor.  Great  things 
were  expected  of  him,  and  his  father  at  least  looked 
forward  to  the  time  when  he  should  hold  the  honorable 
and  lucrative  position  of  legal  adviser  to  the  counts  of 
Mansfeld.  His  own  advance  in  life  gave  him  a  natural 
desire  to  see  his  eldest  son  rise  still  higher  in  the  social 
scale.  Hans  was  no  common  miner,  and  Martin  was 
no  common  boy.  The  son's  promise  and  the  father's 
hopes  went  hand  in  hand. 

After  the  not  uncommon  fashion  of  the  day,  he  car- 
ried little  with  him  to  Magdeburg  beyond  his  parents' 
blessing.  Both  there  and  in  Eisenach,  where  he  was 
sent  a  year  later,  he  begged  and  sang  his  way  to  food 
and  schooling.  In  Eisenach  he  sang  his  way  to  more 
than  both — the  love  and  care  of  a  woman's  heart.  His 
beautiful  eyes  and  voice  first  won  the  attention  of  Frau 
Cotta,  and  she  took  him  into  her  own  home.  Through- 
out his  life  both  friends  and  foes  always  noticed  his 
eyes— dark  and  deep,  as  if  harboring  wonderful  and 
mysterious  thoughts.  And  his  voice  in  song  and  speech 
alike  possessed  a  quality  to  magnetize  and  charm.  It 
is  little  enough  we  know  of  the  pretty  idyl  of  his  life 
in  the  well-to-do  Cotta  family.  Here  he  had  his  first 


HOUSE  AT  EISLEBEN  SHOWN  AS  LUTHER'S  BIRTHPLACE.       IT  WAS 

PARTLY  DESTROYED  BY  FIRE  AND  REBUILT  LATE 

IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY 


BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH  n 

taste  of  culture  and  refinement  and  of  the  gentler 
graces  of  life.  From  his  foster-mother  he  learned  the 
beautiful  proverb,  "On  earth  no  dearer  thing  than 
woman's  love  to  whom  't  is  given  to  possess,"  and  he 
used  often  to  repeat  it  in  later  years  as  a  memento  of 
his  happy  Eisenach  days. 

The  influence  of  Martin's  new  environment  was  life- 
long. His  intimate  friendship  with  gentlefolk  served 
to  temper  such  roughness  and  uncouthness  as  he 
brought  from  the  peasant's  home  and  the  mining  town, 
and  fitted  him  for  association  with  the  greater  world. 
As  a  man  he  always  showed  extraordinary  ease  and 
freedom  in  dealing  with  men  of  all  classes.  This  was 
certainly  due  at  least  in  part  to  these  formative  years. 
In  Eisenach,  too,  he  found  school  and  teachers  to  his 
liking.  Trebonius,  the  principal,  can  have  been  no 
common  pedagogue.  Upon  entering  the  presence  of 
his  classes  he  always  removed  his  scholar's  cap  and 
insisted  his  teachers  should  do  the  same,  because  of  the 
mayors,  chancellors,  doctors,  and  rulers  of  the  future 
who  occupied  the  benches.  The  teaching  was  of  the 
best,  and  was  in  sharp  contrast  to  the  sort  that  Martin 
had  hitherto  enjoyed,  or  suffered.  He  here  came  in 
contact  with  the  new  humanistic  spirit  and  methods  for 
the  first  time,  and  he  distinguished  himself  among  his 
fellow-pupils  for  his  aptitude  in  language  and  litera- 
ture. In  the  congenial  atmosphere  of  home  and  school 
he  developed  rapidly  and  used  his  social  advantages  to 
so  good  effect  and  made  such  progress  in  his  studies 
that  at  seventeen  he  entered  the  University  of  Erfurt, 
the  greatest  of  the  German  universities  of  the  day, 
attractive  enough  to  win  many  friends,  and  well 
enough  prepared  to  take  his  bachelor's  degree  at  the 
end  of  a  year. 

Here  he  encountered  new  experiences.     Erfurt  was 


12  MARTIN  LUTHER 

a  rich  and  populous  city,  in  the  heyday  of  its  pros- 
perity, "plagued,"  as  one  of  its  preachers  said,  "with 
plenty,  as  other  places  with  want,"  proud  of  its  wealth, 
its  fame,  its  stately  buildings,  prouder  still  of  its  uni- 
versity whose  occasions  were  gala-days  for  the  whole 
town.  Nothing  else  brings  such  joy  in  life,  Luther 
thought,  as  comes  to  the  new  graduate  when,  examina- 
tions successfully  passed,  he  is  escorted  through  the 
streets  in  triumph  by  his  fellow-students,  with  banners, 
torches,  and  music,  and  is  hailed  Magister  by  the  citi- 
zens that  line  the  route.  Splendid  days  those,  when 
the  scholar  was  held  in  honor  by  all  the  world — stir- 
ring days  they  were,  too,  in  university  life.  The  new 
humanism,  with  its  devotion  to  classical  learning,  was 
making  rapid  headway  and  was  disputing  the  suprem- 
acy with  the  dominant  scholasticism  of  the  age.  It  was 
not  a  time  of  stagnation.  Champions  of  the  one  and 
the  other  system  were  battling  in  friendly,  sometimes 
hostile,  rivalry. 

Erfurt  boasted  the  presence  of  some  of  the  greatest 
representatives  of  both.  Here  one  could  study  phi- 
losophy with  Trutvetter,  and  the  classics  with  Maternus, 
and  hither,  to  study  with  one  or  both,  or  with  others 
scarcely  less  famous,  young  men  came  from  all  parts 
of  the  country  and  even  from  abroad.  It  was  a  cur- 
rent saying,  "Who  would  study  rightly  must  go  to 
Erfurt,"  and  Luther  himself,  whose  pride  at  being  one 
of  its  graduates  was  lifelong,  declared  with  pardonable 
exaggeration  that  the  other  universities  were  no  more 
than  primary  schools  beside  it.  Into  its  stimulating 
atmosphere  he  brought  an  eagerness  and  thirst  for 
knowledge  which  set  him  rapidly  forward.  At  the 
same  time  he  threw  himself  with  enthusiasm  into  the 
life  of  the  place.  He  carried  a  sword  according  to 
common  student  custom,  and  dressed  as  his  fellows 


BRONZE    STATUE    OF    MARTIN    LUTHER    IN    EISLEBEN 
By  Siemering,  unveiled  in  1883  on  the  four-hundredth  anniversary  of  Luther's  birth 


BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH  13 

did.  His  father's  circumstances  had  so  improved  that 
he  was  able  to  keep  him  in  comfort,  and  did  not  stint 
him  for  money.  Martin  was  no  recluse.  He  was  a 
lovable,  companionable  fellow,  witty  and  talkative.  "I 
say  more  in  a  day  than  the  Emperor  Charles  in  a 
year,"  he  once  remarked  in  commenting  upon  the  grav- 
ity and  sobriety  of  the  young  monarch.  Fond  of  joke 
and  jest  he  was  too,  and  devoted  to  music,  for  which 
he  had  a  natural  gift.  When  laid  up  for  a  short  time 
by  an  accident,  he  found  an  old  lute  in  his  chamber, 
and  before  he  was  able  to  be  out  again  learned  to  play 
it  well  enough  to  make  it  a  lifelong  joy.  Speaking  of 
music  in  later  years,  he  called  it  one  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful and  lordly  gifts  of  God,  ranking  it  next  after  theol- 
ogy in  importance.  And  on  one  occasion  he  exclaimed 
enthusiastically,  "He  who  is  musical  is  equal  to  any- 
thing." 

Martin's  intimates  were  not  all  scholars,  by  any 
means.  He  tells  an  amusing  tale  of  a  room-mate  he 
had  for  a  couple  of  years  who  never  did  any  studying. 
Repeatedly  admonished  for  his  indolence,  he  sat  down 
one  day  book  in  hand,  and  after  glaring  at  it  for  half 
an  hour,  threw  it  on  the  floor  and  stamped  on  it  in 
anger,  with  the  exclamation,  "You  would  make  me  a 
fool,  would  you?  From  studeo  [to  study]  comes 
stultum  [foolish].  Study  always  breeds  the  fool." 
Evidently  there  was  more  than  mere  study  in  our 
hero's  college  life.  And  yet  there  is  no  sign  that  he 
indulged  in  wildness  or  dissipation.  That  kind  of 
thing  was  never  particularly  to  his  liking,  and  he  had 
better  and  more  important  business  on  hand. 

He  came  into  intimate  relations  with  a  little  circle  of 
"poets,"  as  they  called  themselves,  who  gave  much  of 
their  time  to  the  cultivation  of  the  art  of  fine  writing 
after  classic  models,  and  met  regularly  to  hear  and  criti- 


14  MARTIN  LUTHER 

cize  one  another's  effusions.  But  he  found  himself  more 
attracted  by  philosophy  than  by  literature.  Fair  progress 
was  made  in  his  humanistic  studies,  but  he  never  cared 
as  much  for  form  as  for  substance,  and  grammar  he 
always  found  irksome.  The  way  he  went  about  the 
learning  of  Hebrew  some  years  later  was  characteristic 
of  his  general  attitude,  and,  it  may  be  added,  of  his 
good  sense.  He  paid  little  attention  to  grammatical 
details,  but  read  rapidly  and  copiously  until  he  entered 
into  the  spirit  of  the  language,  and  could  read  it  with 
pleasure  and  sympathy. 

Latin  was  the  language  of  the  class-room  in  Erfurt, 
as  everywhere  else,  and  it  became  a  second  mother 
tongue  to  him,  as  to  all  the  scholars  of  the  day;  but 
classical  elegance  in  composition  he  never  attained. 
He  often  apologized  for  the  rusticity  and  barbarity  of 
his  Latin  style,  comparing  himself  in  his  correspon- 
dence with  scholarly  friends  to  a  goose  among  swans. 
Nor  wras  this  mere  affectation  of  modesty,  for  he  never 
hesitated  to  boast  of  his  knowledge  of  philosophy  in 
contrast  with  the  ignorance  of  his  contemporaries, 
friends  and  foes  alike.  His  mastery  of  his  mother 
tongue  shows  what  he  might  have  been  as  a  Latin 
stylist  had  he  cared  to  make  the  effort.  Even  as  it  was 
he  wrote  the  language  with  fluency  and  with  a  vigor 
and  raciness  seldom  equaled  by  the  best  writers  of  his 
day.  He  could  use  it  well  enough  for  all  practical  pur- 
poses ;  for  more  than  this  he  cared  little. 

He  did  not  learn  Greek  until  later  and  then  only  for 
the  Bible's  sake.  He  was  not  singular  in  this.  Few 
even  yet  were  carrying  their  classical  zeal  so  far,  and 
the  single  teacher  of  Greek  Erfurt  boasted  in  his  student 
days — great  center  of  humanistic  culture  though  it  was 
—left  the  university  during  his  first  year.  He  loved  the 
old  Latin  authors,  both  moralists  and  poets.  He  read 


BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH  15 

them  extensively  and  stored  his  retentive  memory  with 
apt  quotations  which  in  after  years  he  used  to  good 
effect.  One  of  the  chief  regrets  of  his  days  of  con- 
troversy was  his  lack  of  leisure  for  such  reading.  The 
practical  wisdom  of  the  ancients  interested  him  most. 
He  was  always  a  student  of  life.  History  and  biog- 
raphy he  was  particularly  fond  of,  and  often  lamented 
the  small  attention  given  to  both  in  the  training  of  the 
young. 

The  reigning  philosophy  of  the  day  was  that  of  the 
schoolmen,  and  to  this  he  chiefly  gave  himself.  Logic 
absorbed  a  large  part  of  the  attention  both  of  teachers 
and  pupils.  Continual  disputation  sharpened  the  stu- 
dents' wits  and  gave  them  skill  in  debate.  Martin 
profited  greatly  by  this  exercise.  He  became  one  of 
the  most  powerful  and  resourceful  disputants  of  the 
day,  and  always  recognized  with  gratitude  the  value 
of  the  training  he  had  enjoyed.  With  the  schoolmen, 
theology  and  metaphysics  went  hand  in  hand,  and  if 
form  commonly  meant  more  than  substance,  still  their 
study  opened  before  the  eager  mind  of  the  young 
student  all  sorts  of  questions  concerning  the  origin  and 
constitution  of  the  universe,  both  spiritual  and  physical, 
and  with  these  questions  he  loved  to  busy  himself.  He 
was  known  among  his  companions  as  "The  Philos- 
opher," and  his  philosophical  attainments  were  before 
long  the  admiration  of  teachers  and  students  alike. 
The  impression  he  made  is  illustrated  by  the  remark 
of  the  father  of  one  of  his  intimates  when  Martin  was 
complaining  of  poor  health  and  fearing  an  early 
death :  "Do  not  be  afraid,  my  dear  Baccalaureus.  You 
will  live  to  be  a  great  man."  The  words  were  casual 
enough,  no  doubt,  but  they  carry  significance  in  the 
light  of  their  fulfilment,  as  they  did  to  Luther  himself, 
who  remembered  and  repeated  them  long  after. 


18  MARTIN  LUTHER 

He  did  not  particularly  distinguish  himself  in  his 
work  for  the  bachelor's  degree.  When  he  took  it  in  the 
summer  of  1502,  he  was  only  thirtieth  in  a  class  of 
fifty-seven.  But  two  and  a  half  years  later,  when  he 
got  his  M.A.,  he  stood  second  in  a  class  of  seventeen. 
The  pride  of  the  father  over  his  son's  success  was  al- 
most pathetic.  He  habitually  addressed  the  young 
magister,  home  for  a  recess  after  the  degree  was  won, 
with  the  ceremonious  "you"  of  formal  intercourse  in- 
stead of  the  familiar  "thou"  of  ordinary  conversation. 

His  general  education  finished,  Martin  took  up  at 
once,  in  accordance  with  his  father's  long-cherished 
project,  the  study  of  law.  But  he  had  little  liking  for 
it.  In  later  years  he  could  not  say  enough  in  dispraise 
of  the  law  and  in  contempt  of  the  legal  profession. 
The  toilsome  gathering  of  precedents  particularly  irked 
him,  and  he  seemed  to  think  it  the  lawyer's  chief  end 
to  devise  means  of  defeating  justice.  "Jurists,"  he 
declared,  "commonly  dispute  and  discuss  about  words. 
They  alter  the  facts  and  fail  to  go  to  the  bottom  of 
them  that  the  truth  may  be  discovered.  They  say  a 
great  deal  and  use  many  words,  but  without  under- 
standing." "They  take  the  money  of  the  poor,  and 
with  the  tongue  thresh  out  both  their  pocket  and  their 
purse."  They  made  bad  Christians,  he  thought,  and 
few  of  them  would  be  saved.  But  in  this  he  put  them 
in  no  worse  case  than  the  speculative  theologians.  He 
once  remarked  boastingly  that  if  he  had  studied  law 
two  years  he  would  have  known  more  about  it  than  a 
certain  famous  lawyer  of  the  day.  Without  doubt  he 
would  have  distinguished  himself,  had  he  kept  at  it; 
but  the  whole  thing  was  little  to  his  liking,  and  he  soon 
turned  his  back  upon  it.  He  did  it  in  no  ordinary  way. 

Luther's  life  was  full  of  startling  and  unexpected 
crises,  and  the  first  and  most  startling  of  them  all  came 


gs*^^^»m*;;-;:ra<ra       rasp   -  jr    ,<„''••' 

P^im£    : 

^  '^S# 


THE   LILIE   INN   AT    ERFURT,  WHICH    LUTHER    IS 
SAID    TO    HAVE    FREQUENTED 


BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH  17 

in  the  summer  of  1505,  after  he  had  been  a  law-student 
for  only  a  few  weeks.  He  had  just  been  home  for 
a  brief  visit.  His  progress  in  his  work  had  been  all 
that  could  be  desired,  and  his  parents*  pride  and  hope 
were  higher  than  ever,  when  suddenly,  to  the  con- 
sternation of  everybody  and  to  the  wrath  of  his  father, 
who  was  already  thinking  of  an  honorable  marriage 
for  him  which  should  still  further  improve  his  pros- 
pects, he  threw  it  all  up  and  went  into  a  monastery. 
The  immediate  occasion  of  this  extraordinary  step  was 
a  terrific  thunder-storm  which  overtook  him  just  out- 
side the  town  when  he  was  returning  from  his  visit 
home.  In  mortal  dread  of  death,  he  threw  himself 
on  the  ground,  crying  to  the  patron  saint  of  the  miners, 
to  whom  he  had  often  turned  in  seasons  of  distress : 
"Help,  dear  Saint  Anna !  I  will  become  a  monk." 

The  vow  so  rashly  made  he  hastened  to  put  into 
execution.  Fearing  lest  he  might  repent,  he  made  his 
preparations  as  rapidly  as  he  could,  sold  his  books, 
including  the  costly  "Corpus  Juris"  with  which  he  had 
been  equipped  for  professional  study  by  his  proud 
father,  gave  a  farewell  dinner  to  his  friends,  and,  in 
spite  of  their  pleas  and  protestations,  entered  the 
Augustinian  monastery  in  Erfurt,  on  the  morning  of 
the  seventeenth  of  July,  when  he  was  only  twenty-one 
years  old. 

This  was  the  most  momentous  event  in  Luther's 
career.  Upon  it  hinged  all  that  followed.  It  cut  his 
life  in  twain.  Nothing  could  be  more  extreme  than  the 
contrast  between  university  and  convent ;  nothing  more 
unexpected  than  such  a  denouement  for  the  brilliant 
young  law-student.  And  yet  his  conduct  was  natural 
enough.  One  of  the  commonest  and  most  normal  facts 
in  human  history  is  the  experience  we  call  conversion, 

a  profound   crisis   which   overturns   everything   and 
2 


i8  MARTIN  LUTHER 

brings  to  the  surface  what  has  hitherto  lain  dormant 
or  unnoticed;  which  changes  the  direction  of  one's  life, 
and  reshapes  one's  career.  In  all  ages  and  in  all  re- 
ligions the  experience  has  been  familiar.  Some  forms 
of  faith  make  more  of  it  than  others,  and  sometimes 
it  occurs  quite  apart  from  all  religious  interest  and 
motive.  But  it  is  essentially  the  same  even  though  its 
outward  fashion  varies  widely. 

To  such  an  experience  the  young  Luther  was  pecul- 
iarly susceptible.  He  was  a  serious-minded  boy.  He 
had  been  piously  trained,  and  religion  was  a  very  real 
thing  to  him.  His  imagination  was  peopled  with  angels 
and  demons,  and  his  life  was  lived  in  constant  depen- 
dence upon  the  aid  and  protection  of  the  saints.  He 
was  emotional  by  temperament,  subject  to  fits  of  de- 
pression, and  exposed  to  attacks  of  anxiety  and  dread 
as  to  his  fate  which  at  times  almost  drove  him  wild. 
Even  as  a  child  he  was  frequently  distressed  by  his 
sins  and  terrified  by  the  fear  of  eternal  punishment. 
The  harsh  treatment  he  was  early  subjected  to  had 
given  him  a  timorous  conscience  and  made  him  abnor- 
mally apprehensive.  His  friends  had  little  inkling  of 
his  unquiet  frame  of  mind,  but  a  fellow-student  reports 
that  once  when  he  was  washing  his  hands  the  future 
reformer  remarked,  "The  longer  we  wash,  the  un- 
cleaner  we  are."  The  words  sound  apocryphal  in  this 
connection,  but  in  any  case  it  is  evident  enough  that 
beneath  the  smooth  surface  of  his  daily  life  there  were 
troubled  waters. 

In  the  spring  of  1505  the  reaction  after  his  hard 
study  for  the  master's  degree,  his  growing  distaste  for 
the  legal  profession,  the  death  of  a  student  friend, 
all  united  to  make  him  particularly  sensitive  and  im- 
pressionable. The  crisis  came  suddenly,  as  it  often 
comes,  and  secret  forebodings  and  half-articulate  im- 
pulses in  a  moment  crystallized  into  a  clearly  formed 


BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH  19 

purpose,  and  the  solemn  vow  was  registered — a  vow  of 
devotion  to  a  new  career  which  has  taken  countless 
young  Catholics  into  the  priesthood  or  the  monastery 
and  countless  young  Protestants  into  the  ministry  or 
the  mission  field. 

That,  in  Luther's  case,  it  should  have  been  the  mon- 
astery was  inevitable.  There  religion  was  taken  most 
seriously,  and,  to  one  like  him,  nothing  less  would 
answer.  For  centuries  it  had  appealed  with  subtle  and 
persuasive  eloquence  to  the  finest  and  most  sensitive 
spirits.  If  things  went  wrong,  if  the  world  seemed 
empty,  as  empty  enough  it  often  seems  to  the  most 
gifted  and  eager  young  souls  as  they  stand  hesitating 
on  its  threshold,  the  call  of  the  solitary  life,  the  life  of 
the  spirit,  invested  as  it  was  with  a  halo  of  sanctity, 
came  with  almost  irresistible  fascination.  Resisted  it 
might  be,  but  all  too  often  only  at  the  expense  of  the 
higher  visions  and  the  finer  ideals  of  youth.  The 
realization  of  its  spiritual  purpose  might  be  crude 
enough  in  current  monasticism  and  rude  indeed  the 
awakening  of  many  a  trusting  young  neophyte.  In 
Luther's  day  its  reputation  was  by  no  means  unsullied. 
By  many  a  humanist  the  follies  and  stupidities  and  im- 
moralities of  the  monks  were  castigated  in  rollicking 
jest  or  in  bitter  satire.  It  was  a  current  proverb, 
"What  the  devil  is  ashamed  to  do,  a  monk  does  without 
shame,"  and  to  a  contemporary  bishop  was  attributed 
the  saying,  "Into  the  monastery  with  him!  He  is 
worth  nothing  either  to  God  or  man !" 

But  of  all  this  Luther  was  little  aware.  In  Mans f eld 
the  clergy  bore  an  excellent  reputation  and  were  held 
in  general  respect.  His  father  was  their  friend,  and  his 
mother  a  reverent  admirer.  In  Magdeburg  he  had  been 
under  the  instruction  of  members  of  a  semi-monastic 
order,  the  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life,  and  while 
there  was  profoundly  impressed  by  the  spectacle  of  a 


20  MARTIN  LUTHER 

prince  of  Anhalt,  emaciated  by  prolonged  fasting,  who 
went  through  the  streets  in  monastic  garb  begging 
bread  for  the  convent  and  staggering  under  the  weight 
of  the  sack  he  carried.  The  sight  of  him,  Luther  says, 
aroused  deep  reverence  in  the  onlookers  and  made 
them  ashamed  of  their  worldly  way  of  living.  In 
Eisenach  there  was  a  Franciscan  monastery  which  had 
received  large  gifts  from  the  family  of  Frau  Cotta. 
Here  Martin  was  kindly  received,  and  among  its  in- 
mates he  found  benefactors  and  lifelong  friends.  In 
Erfurt,  with  all  its  humanistic  leanings,  religious  devo- 
tion was  unbounded,  and  there  were  no  fewer  than 
eight  monasteries  in  the  city.  To  the  young  Luther, 
as  to  many  of  his  friends,  the  monastic  calling  seemed 
the  holiest  of  all,  and  the  glamour  of  its  sanctity  was 
untarnished  by  suspicion  or  dislike. 

He  must  frequently  have  thought  of  doing  just  what 
he  now  did.  The  vow  that  sprang  to  his  lips  in  a 
moment  of  terror  was  only  the  utterance  of  a  half- 
formed  purpose,  often  entertained,  perhaps  as  often 
struggled  against.  He  spoke  of  it  afterward  as  an 
unwilling  vow,  forced  upon  him  by  a  sign  from  heaven, 
and  his  friends  likened  his  experience  to  the  mirac- 
ulous conversion  of  the  apostle  Paul.  But  it  was  no 
mere  precipitate  resolution,  made  in  haste  and  repented 
at  leisure.  Sudden  as  it  seemed  even  to  himself,  it  had 
been  long  preparing,  and  once  in  the  monastery,  he  felt 
at  home  and  took  up  the  monastic  life  with  profound 
relief  as  well  as  with  unwavering  devotion  and  exem- 
plary zeal. 

Of  all  the  monasteries  in  Erfurt,  the  Augustinian 
bore  the  highest  reputation  for  theological  learning  and 
for  public  service.  Its  rules  were  not  as  severe  as 
some,  and  the  young  convert  evidently  did  not  choose 
it  from  mere  blind  zeal  for  his  soul's  salvation.  Its 
inmates  were  the  principal  preachers  of  the  town,  and 


THE    UNIVERSITY   AT    ERFURT,   WHERE    LUTHER   WAS   A   STUDENT 


BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH  21 

were  noted  for  charity  and  good  works.  Here  he 
believed  he  could  put  'his  talents  to  the  best  use,  and 
the  event  proved  that  he  was  right. 

Fired  with  enthusiasm,  he  passed  within  the  convent 
doors  and  was  buried  to  the  world,  as  he  believed,  for- 
ever. His  friends  were  stupefied.  The  happy,  light- 
hearted  companion,  with  his  frank  good-fellowship 
and  his  contagious  merriment,  how  unfitted  he  seemed 
for  the  monastic  career !  But  he  was  made  for  religion, 
little  as  they  suspected  it,  and  thenceforth,  to  the  end 
of  his  days,  his  life  was  professionally  and  in  reality 
a  religious  life.  What  had  hitherto  been  not  lacking, 
but  secondary,  now  became  primary  and  controlling 
and  dominated  all  his  thought  and  activity. 

The  surprising  thing  about  Luther's  entrance  into 
the  monastery  was  not  the  fact  itself,  but  the  lateness 
of  the  conversion  leading  to  it.  The  experience  he 
passed  through  is  apt  to  come  earlier  in  life,  if  it  comes 
at  all.  But  Luther  was  later  than  most  men  in  some  of 
the  other  experiences  of  his  life  as  well  as  this,  and  it 
was  a  happy  thing  for  him  that  it  was  so.  That  the 
coming  reformer  spent  his  most  impressionable  years 
not  within  the  walls  of  a  cloister,  but  in  the  bracing 
and  expanding  atmosphere  of  a  great  university,  min- 
gling intimately  with  some  of  the  brightest  and  most 
eager  minds  of  his  age,  sharing  in  their  ambitions, 
their  labors,  and  their  pleasures,  was  of  incalculable 
benefit  to  him  and  to  the  Protestant  Church,  whose 
founder  he  became.  Not  in  the  monastery  merely  did 
he  get  his  training,  and  not  out  of  its  retired  sanctity 
alone  did  the  great  movement  come.  The  larger  world 
had  a  hand  in  making  it  and  him.  Though  set  apart 
by  his  monastic  vow  for  more  than  fifteen  years,  he 
never  lost  his  touch  with  human  interests.  Devout  and 
zealous  monk  as  he  was,  he  was  always  more  a  man 
than  a  monk. 


CHAPTER  II 

LIFE  AS  A  MONK 

a  young  man  of  twenty-one  who  for  four  years 
had  breathed  the  free  air  of  a  great  university, 
and  gone  his  own  independent  way,  the  monastic  life 
must  have  been  peculiarly  irksome.  Hedged  about  it 
was  by  the  most  minute  and  exacting  rules.  The  con- 
vent was  a  training-school  for  manners  as  well  as  for 
virtue  and  piety,  and  its  regulations  concerned  the  pet- 
tiest details  of  conduct.  How  to  walk,  to  stand,  to 
speak,  to  dress,  to  eat,  as  well  as  how  to  pray — all  was 
carefully  prescribed,  and  not  a  moment  of  the  day  was 
left  unprovided  for.  From  the  time  of  rising,  long 
before  dawn,  until  the  hour  when  lights  must  be  out 
and  all  in  bed,  nothing  was  left  to  individual  choice, 
and  the  novitiate  at  least  was  never  alone,  for  all  his 
duties  and  devotions  were  performed  under  the  con- 
stant supervision  of  others. 

Humility  and  obedience  were  the  virtues  chiefly 
aimed  at.  That  the  neophyte  should  be  divested  of  all 
pride  and  self-confidence,  and  should  learn  to  have  no 
will  of  his  own,  was  an  indispensable  preparation  for 
the  true  monastic  life.  "The  monks,"  Luther  says, 
"sought  to  try  one's  obedience  by  requiring  that  un- 
reasonable, burdensome,  childish,  and  foolish  things 
be  done  with  willing  and  joyful  hearts."  Partly  with 
this  in  view,  partly  as  a  result  of  the  natural  desire  of 
the  older  monks  to  see  their  younger  brethren  undergo 

22 


LIFE  AS  A  MONK  23 

as  much  as  they  had  endured,  the  most  menial  em- 
ployments were  laid  upon  them.  They  were  compelled 
to  sweep,  scrub,  and  do  kitchen  and  chamber  work,  and 
if  they  showed  disinclination  to  their  tasks,  only  the 
more  was  exacted  of  them. 

The  Augustinian  was  a  mendicant  order,  and  beg- 
ging was  a  part  of  its  creed.  It  was  doubtless  some- 
thing of  a  trial  to  the  young  and  brilliant  master  of 
arts  to  go  through  the  familiar  streets  clad  in  monastic 
garb,  with  a  sack  on  his  back,  begging  bread  from 
house  to  house.  At  any  rate,  whatever  he  thought  of 
it,  according  to  his  friend  and  biographer  Mathesius, 
it  seemed  to  the  university  authorities  too  great  an 
indignity  to  be  put  on  one  of  their  graduates,  and  at 
their  solicitation  he  was  allowed  to  confine  his  begging 
to  the  outlying  villages.  From  his  own  lips,  so  far  as 
we  can  learn,  were  heard  no  complaints  of  the  duties 
laid  upon  him  and  of  the  humiliations  to  which  he  was 
subjected.  He  performed  his  tasks  without  murmur- 
ing, and  submitted  without  protest  to  the  chastening 
experiences  of  his  new  surroundings. 

It  may  well  be  believed  that  his  reputation  and 
attainments  did  not  make  his  association  with  the  other 
inmates  of  the  convent  any  easier.  "My  cloister  bro- 
thers," he  once  remarked,  "were  annoyed  at  me  because 
I  was  a  student.  They  said,  'As  with  me,  so  with 
thee;  put  the  sack  on  his  neck.' '  His  enemies  at  a 
later  date  accused  him  of  overweening  pride  and  self- 
conceit,  and  he  was  apparently  never  very  popular 
with  the  Erfurt  monks.  Perhaps  he  was.  not  so  ami- 
able and  companionable  as  he  might  have  been,  for  the 
contrast  between  the  ambitious,  eager,  and  talented 
friends  he  had  left  and  most  of  those  with  whom  he 
was  now  thrown  was  very  marked.  Earnest  as  he  was 
in  his  desire  to  give  himself  to  religion,  and  willingly 


24  MARTIN  LUTHER 

as  he  assumed  the  burdens  and  endured  the  discipline 
of  his  self-chosen  calling,  he  could  hardly  find  it  easy 
to  recognize  his  new  brethren  as  his  equals  and  to 
reconcile  himself  to  lifelong  association  with  them; 
and  if  he  held  more  or  less  aloof,  it  was  only  natural 
in  the  circumstances.  But,  despite  all,  his  resolution 
did  not  waver.  He  was  given  plenty  of  time  and  op- 
portunity to  change  his  mind  and  return  to  the  world. 
He  was  not  allowed  to  become  a  novitiate  until  autumn, 
and  more  than  a  year  elapsed  before  he  took  the  irrev- 
ocable vow  and  was  enrolled  as  a  full  member  of  the 
order.  Until  then  he  might  at  any  time  have  with- 
drawn. Thereafter  to  do  so  was  a  crime  in  the  eyes 
both  of  church  and  state. 

The  solemn  ceremony  attending  the  taking  of  the 
threefold  vow  of  poverty,  chastity,  and  obedience  pro- 
duced upon  him  an  impression  never  effaced.  Before 
the  assembled  monks  he  was  obliged  to  swear :  "I, 
Brothei*  Martin,  make  profession  and  promise  obedi- 
ence to  Almighty  God,  to  the  Holy  Virgin  Mary,  to 
the  Holy  Father  Augustine,  and  to  thee  the  prior  of 
this  convent,  who  standest  in  the  place  of  the  General 
of  the  Order,  to  live  until  death  in  poverty  and  chas- 
tity, according  to  the  rule  of  the  said  Father  Augus- 
tine." 

In  later  years  he  repeatedly  recalled  this  oath  with 
trembling,  and  the  ease  and  light-heartedness  with 
which  many  of  his  friends  and  followers  severed  their 
monastic  ties,  when  the  great  break  with  Catholicism 
came,  shocked  him  exceedingly  even  after  he  himself, 
with  much  searching  of  heart,  had  turned  his  back 
upon  the  convent  life. 

The  Erfurt  cloister  was  one  of  the  principal  theo- 
logical schools  of  the  Augustinian  order,  and  thither 
young  monks  came  from  far  and  near  to  pursue  their 


LIFE  AS  A  MONK  25 

studies.  To  his  superiors  Luther  seemed  fitted  for  the 
career  of  a  theologian  both  by  his  natural  ability  and 
by  his  university  training,  and  accordingly  as  soon  as 
he  had  taken  the  vow  he  began  to  prepare  himself  for 
the  priesthood.  He  was  ordained  in  the  spring  of 
1509,  and  on  the  second  of  May  conducted  mass  for 
the  first  time.  According  to  common  custom,  the  event 
was  celebrated  with  much  pomp.  "The  first  mass," 
Luther  says,  "was  regarded  as  a  great  affair.  It 
brought  in  much  money,  until  it  fairly  rained  gold.  It 
was  a  regular  net  to  catch  offerings  and  presents.  The 
canonical  hours  were  celebrated  with  torches.  The 
young  priest  danced  with  his  mother,  if  she  was  still 
alive,  while  the  onlookers  fairly  wept  for  joy.  If  she 
was  dead,  he  said  a  mass  for  her  and  freed  her  from 
purgatory." 

In  Luther's  case  a  banquet  was  given  in  the  monas- 
tery, to  which  his  family  and  friends  were  invited,  and 
he  and  his  father  met  for  the  first  time  since  his  last 
visit  home  on  the  eve  of  his  withdrawal  from  the 
world.  Wishing  to  honor  the  occasion  duly,  and  per- 
haps to  impress  the  monks  with  his  importance,  Hans 
Luther  appeared  upon  the  scene  with  a  cavalcade  of 
twenty  horses,  a  number  of  friends  from  Mans f eld, 
and  a  substantial  present  for  the  monastery.  It  had 
taken  him  a  long  time  to  forgive  his  son  and  receive 
him  again  into  favor.  His  disappointment  and  anger 
were  too  deep  to  be  easily  assuaged.  His  friends  had 
done  everything  they  could  to  bring  about  a  reconcilia- 
tion, reminding  him  that  the  best  one  has  is  none  too 
good  to  offer  to  the  Lord  and  that  he  ought  to  be  proud 
to  give  his  oldest  and  most  promising  son;  but  Hans 
was  obdurate  and  refused  to  be  mollified  or  comforted. 
Finally  the  death  of  two  of  his  younger  boys  and  the 
unfounded  report  that  Martin,  too,  had  succumbed  to 


26  MARTIN  LUTHER 

the  plague  softened  the  stern  old  miner's  heart.  Even 
now,  however,  he  was  only  partly  resigned  to  the  situa- 
tion, and  he  did  not  hesitate  to  let  it  be  known.  At  the 
banquet  his  feelings  found  expression  in  the  impatient 
exclamation,  "I  must  sit  here  and  eat  and  drink  when 
I  should  much  rather  be  anywhere  else."  When  Mar- 
tin tried  to  justify  himself,  he  remarked  dryly,  "Have 
you  not  heard  a  child  should  honor  his  father  and 
mother?"  While  to  the  protest  that  he  had  been  driven 
into  the  monastery  by  a  sign  from  heaven,  his  only 
reply  was,  "God  grant  it  was  not  a  lying  and  devilish 
specter." 

These  words  of  his  father  Luther  never  forgot. 
They  caused  him  much  anguish  of  spirit.  Doubts  of 
the  wisdom  and  righteousness  of  his  course  began  to 
trouble  him,  and  he  gave  himself  with  increasing  ardor 
and  devotion  to  the  duties  of  his  new  calling,  trying  to 
still  his  conscience  and  win  the  approval  of  God.  If 
up  to  this  time  the  novelty  of  the  monastic  life,  the 
multitudinous  tasks  it  involved,  and  the  constant  asso- 
ciation with  others  by  night  and  by  day,  had  kept  him 
from  thinking  much  about  himself,  he  now  began  to 
suffer  a  return  of  his  old  anxiety  and  depression.  The 
rules  required  the  monk,  after  his  novitiate  was  past, 
to  be  much  alone,  engaged  in  prayer  and  self-examina- 
tion. Luther  was  given  a  cell  of  his  own,  a  seven-by- 
nine  room  quite  bare  of  ornaments  and  comforts,  with 
a  single  small  window  looking  out  upon  the  graveyard 
of  the  convent.  Daily  confession  was  a  part  of  his 
duty,  and  the  introspection  thus  promoted,  good  as  it 
might  be  for  many  a  man,  was  the  worst  possible 
thing  for  one  of  his  disposition.  Periods  of  despon- 
dency and  despair  a  youthful  genius  such  as  he  would 
have  had  to  suffer  anywhere:  in  the  solitude  of  the 
cloister  they  were  doubly  frequent  and  severe.  His 


LIFE  AS  A  MONK  27 

need  was  to  be  doing  things.  Inaction  always  chafed 
and  fretted  him,  and  for  one  of  his  heroic  mold, 
who  was  built  for  large  and  strenuous  deeds,  the  petty 
employments  of  the  monastery,  when  the  halo  of  the 
place  had  somewhat  paled,  were  only  mockery.  Not 
content  with  them,  he  gave  himself  to  hard  study  and 
particularly  to  ascetic  practices  of  the  most  extreme 
kind.  Like  many  another  monk  denied  the  legitimate 
exercise  of  his  powers  in  a  larger  field,  he  sought  satis- 
faction in  heroic  deeds  of  self-mortification.  He  once 
said :  "If  ever  a  monk  gained  heaven  by  his  monkery, 
I  must  have  done  so.  All  the  brethren  who  knew  me 
will  bear  me  witness.  For  I  should  have  martyred  my- 
self, if  I  had  kept  it  up  longer,  with  watching,  praying* 
reading,  and  other  labors." 

It  was  characteristic  of  him  that  he  did  not  leave 
it  to  others  to  prescribe  how  he  should  live.  He  had 
chosen  the  monastic  career  despite  his  father's  very 
different  plans  for  him,  and  in  the  convent,  faithful  as 
he  was  in  discharging  the  required  duties,  he  was  not 
content  therewith,  but  must  go  his  own  independent 
way,  marking  out  the  path  of  holiness  for  himself. 
He  fasted  for  days  at  a  time,  and  spent  night  after 
night  without  sleep,  until  wakefulness  became  a  con- 
firmed habit  and  at  times  fears  were  entertained  for 
his  reason.  If  he  had  had  anything  but  an  iron  consti- 
tution, he  could  not  have  stood  what,  he  did.  As  it 
was,  he  permanently  injured  his  health,  and  laid  up 
much  physical  suffering  for  his  later  years. 

His  ascetic  practices  gained-  him  a  reputation  for 
piety  far  beyond  the  walls  of  the  monastery.  He  was 
held  up  as  a  model  of  holiness  to  monks  and  nuns  of 
other  and  distant  convents,  and  the  odor  of  his  sanc- 
tity penetrated  even  to  the  outer  world.  With  it  all 
his  anxiety  and  distress  only  increased.  He  had  en- 


28  MARTIN  LUTHER 

tered  the  monastery  not,  like  many  another,  because  he 
coveted  the  solitary  life  or  craved  holiness  and  longed 
to  give  himself  to  religious  exercises,  but  from  fear  of 
the  divine  wrath.  This  made  him  abnormally  appre- 
hensive and  prevented  him  from  finding  joy  and  satis- 
faction in  his  self-imposed  tasks.  He  was  beset  always 
with  anxiety  lest  he  was  not  doing  enough  to  propitiate 
an  angry  Deity,  and  he  knew  nothing  of  the  delight  of 
quiet  meditation  upon  spiritual  things  and  intimate 
fellowship  with  a  gracious  God.  The  harder  he  tried 
to  take  the  divine  favor  by  storm,  the  greater  became 
his  despair.  Instead  of  winning  the  righteousness  he 
was  feverishly  pursuing,  he  found  his  offenses  multiply- 
ing day  by  day.  Not  that  he  was  really  growing  worse, 
but  in  the  monastery  many  things  were  considered 
wicked  with  which  the  ordinary  man  had  no  concern. 
At  the  time  he  said  his  first  mass  he  was  so  overcome 
with  dread  lest  he  make  a  mistake  in  word  or  gesture, 
and  thus  commit  a  mortal  sin,  that  he  almost  fled  from 
the  altar.  The  experience  is  a  common  one  with  those 
who  have  some  public  duty  to  perform  for  the  first 
time,  but  mistakes  in  such  a  case  are  not  usually  inter- 
preted as  sins.  It  was  Luther's  religious  reading  of 
the  situation  that  made  it  particularly  harrowing. 

And  not  simply  was  the  sacred  ceremony  of  the 
mass  beset  with  danger  to  his  sensitive  conscience,  the 
minute  monastic  code  of  manners  and  morals  offered 
him  abundant  opportunity  for  sin.  Nothing  could  well 
be  ethically  more  unwholesome  than  to  interpret  any 
violation  of  its  thousand  and  one  precepts  as  an  offense 
against  God,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  young 
monk  who  was  thus  interpreting  them  grew  more  and 
more  morbid.  Above  all,  he  was  troubled  because  he 
could  not  control  his  thoughts  and  feelings.  Not  exter- 
nal acts  alone  seemed  evil,  but  wandering  mind  and 


JOHANN   VON    STAUPITZ 

Portrait  in  possession  of  the  Benedictine  Convent  of  St.  Peter 
at  Salzburg 


LIFE  AS  A  MONK  29 

unruly  emotions  and  especially  the  all  too  frequent 
lack  of  real  joy  and  exultation  in  his  devotions. 

His  unhappiness,  to  be  sure,  was  not  constant. 
Speaking  of  his  own  experiences  at  a  later  time  he 
once  said :  "I  know  a  man  who  has  often,  though  only 
for  brief  periods,  suffered  the  pains  of  hell  such  as  no 
tongue  or  pen  could  describe  and  no  one  could  believe, 
if  he  had  not  himself  felt  them.  If  they  had  lasted  for 
a  half  or  even  a  tenth  part  of  an  hour,  he  would  have 
perished  altogether  and  his  bones  would  have  crumbled 
to  ashes."  In  the  very  nature  of  the  case  such  agony 
could  not  continue  indefinitely.  There  were  periods 
when  he  was  well  satisfied  with  himself  and  enjoyed 
peace  with  God  and  his  own  conscience;  seasons,  too, 
when  he  was  thinking  of  other  things  and  sharing  in 
the  every-day  interests  of  convent  life.  We  get  many 
hints  in  his  writings  that  the  Erfurt  monastery  was  the 
scene,  as  we  should  expect  it  to  be,  of  much  good- 
fellowship  and  pleasant  recreation.  In  the  common 
room  there  was  plenty  of  mirth  and  jollity.  Stories 
and  jokes  enlivened  the  conversation,  and  relieved  even 
for  him  the  tension  of  monastic  discipline.  It  was  a 
motto  of  the  shrewd  and  urbane  nobleman  Von  Stau- 
pitz,  Vicar-General  of  the  Augustinian  order,  who  was 
a  welcome  guest  at  many  a  princely  board,  "Reverent 
in  worship,  merry  at  table,"  and  though  the  cloister 
rules  enjoined  silence  at  meals,  the  spirit  of  the  motto 
was  doubtless  observed  by  his  monks.  Luther  himself 
had  too  keen  a  sense  of  fun  not  to  enjoy  this  side  of 
life.  He  has  preserved  for  us  many  amusing  monastic 
tales,  often  grotesque,  sometimes  coarse,  which  he 
heard  in  his  convent  days.  The  devil  figures  largely  in 
them.  Without  his  satanic  highness  we  cannot  imagine 
how  the  brothers  could  have  got  along.  He  filled  the 
place  sometimes  assigned  to  the  monks  themselves  in 


30  MARTIN  LUTHER 

similar  tales  which  passed  current  outside  the  monas- 
tery walls. 

But  in  spite  of  all  the  good-fellowship  and  common 
human  pleasures,  Luther's  distress  was  continually 
recurring.  Very  likely  his  periods  of  mental  suffering 
loomed  unduly  large  in  his  memory  as  he  looked  back 
upon  them  in  later  years.  Unconsciously  he  may  easily 
have  exaggerated  their  frequency  and  intensity.  But 
the  experiences  he  recounts  are  just  what  might  have 
been  expected  in  one  of  his  temperament  and  disposi- 
tion, and  there  can  be  no  doubt  they  were  severe  and 
excruciating  enough.  His  reading  of  Paul  and  Augus- 
tine, in  the  course  of  his  theological  study,  gave  rise  to 
the  fear  that  he  was  one  of  the  reprobate  and  his  suffer- 
ings the  agony  of  the  damned — a  fear  which  has  fre- 
quently brought  torment  to  morbid  and  overwrought 
souls.  Instead  of  loving  God,  he  turned  away  from 
Him  in  horror  and  wished  there  were  no  God.  Even 
Christ  was  read  in  the  same  somber  terms,  and  the 
sight  of  a  crucifix  frightened  him,  he  says,  like  a 
thunderbolt. 

His  state  of  mind  gave  his  superiors  much  concern. 
Few  were  able  to  understand  him.  Some  thought  him 
unbalanced  in  mind;  others  suspected  he  was  under 
the  control  of  evil  spirits.  In  later  days  his  enemies 
pointed  to  his  unhappy  experiences  in  the  convent  as 
proof  of  demoniacal  possession,  and  he  himself  inter- 
preted them  as  assaults  of  his  lifelong  antagonist,  the 
devil. 

Now  and  then  he  found  help  from  one  or  another 
brother.  Having  complained  to  his  preceptor  of  the 
troubles  he  was  enduring,  he  was  comforted  by  the 
reply,  "Son,  what  are  you  doing?  Do  you  not  know 
that  the  Lord  Himself  has  commanded  us  to  hope?" 
On  another  occasion  an  old  confessor,  when  he  found 


LIFE  AS  A  MONK  31 

him  tormenting  himself  with  all  sorts  of  sins  that  were 
no  sins,  brought  him  up  sharply  with  the  admonition : 
"You  are  a  fool.  God  is  not  angry  with  you ;  it  is  you 
who  are  angry  with  God/'  But  it  was  from  Staupitz 
permanent  relief  came.  He  was  greatly  interested 
in  Luther's  case,  and  conceived  a  strong  admira- 
tion and  affection  for  the  passionate  and  perturbed 
young  spirit.  He  once  remarked  that  he  had  never  felt 
any  such  troubles,  but  so  far  as  he  could  see,  they  were 
more  necessary  to  Brother  Martin  than  food  and  drink. 
When  Luther  wrote  him,  "Oh,  my  sin,  my  sin,  my 
sin!"  he  replied :  "You  wish  to  be  without  sin,  and  you 
have  no  real  sin.  Christ  is  the  forgiveness  of  genuine 
sins  like  parricide,  blasphemy,  sacrilege,  adultery,  and 
so  on.  Those  are  true  sins.  You  must  have  a  cata- 
logue with  real  sins  written  in  it  if  Christ  is  to  help 
you.  You  must  not  go  about  with  such  trifles  and 
trumpery  and  make  a  sin  out  of  every  inadvertence." 
He  told  Luther  frankly  he  did  not  know  what  to  do  for 
him,  but  his  influence  was  very  helpful,  nevertheless. 
He  succeeded  in  delivering  him  from  the  fear  that  he 
was  reprobate  by  convincing  him  that  his  distresses 
were  sent  him  for  his  own  good,  in  order  to  train  him 
for  an  important  career;  and  what  was  still  more,  he 
led  him  to  believe  that  God  was  merciful  and  forgave 
freely  the  one  who  threw  himself  on  Christ  in  faith  and 
ceased  to  trust  in  his  own  merits.  This  was  no  new 
idea.  On  the  contrary,  it  had  been  the  comfort  of 
multitudes  of  pious  souls  in  every  age,  but,  driven  by 
the  harsh  discipline  of  his  early  life  to  see  God  only 
in  the  aspect  of  a  stern  judge,  Luther  had  hitherto  been 
altogether  blind  to  it.  Gradually,  under  Staupitz's 
tutelage,  his  eyes  were  opened,  and  a  new  gospel 
dawned  upon  his  gaze. 

His  liberation  from  despair  was  not  immediate,  nor 


32  MARTIN  LUTHER 

was  it  accomplished  by  a  mere  word.  Long  after- 
ward, when  faith  in  God's  forgiving  love  had  com- 
pletely displaced  his  early  notions,  he  still  suffered 
at  times  from  religious  depression,  and  had  to  contend, 
as  he  thought,  with  the  assaults  of  Satan,  in  the  shape 
of  bitter  doubts  and  fears.  It  was  more  than  a  new 
gospel  he  needed — engrossing  occupation,  release  from 
constant  thought  of  self,  opportunity  for  work  and 
service  fitted  to  his  powers.  This,  too,  Staupitz  under- 
stood, and  soon  summoned  him  to  a  new  field  and  to 
the  absorbing  tasks  of  a  busy  and  useful  life. 

THE  University  of  Wittenberg  was  founded  in  1502 
by  the  Saxon  Elector  Frederick  the  Wise.  In  the 
division  of  Saxony  in  1485  between  the  two  brothers 
Ernest  and  Albert,— when  Ernest  fixed  the  shares,  and 
Albert  took  his  choice  between  them, — the  electoral 
dignity  fell  to  the  older  son,  but  Leipsic,  with  its  uni- 
versity, to  the  younger.  Electoral  Saxony  was  thus 
left  without  a  university,  and  to  repair  the  loss  Freder- 
ick established  his  in  1502.  The  new  institution  owed 
its  charter  to  the  emperor,  not  to  the  pope,  and  enjoyed 
a  greater  degree  of  academic  freedom  than  would 
otherwise  have  been  the  case ;  but  there  was  no  thought 
of  making  it  a  harbor  of  radical  ideas,  and  its  profes- 
sors were  obliged  to  take  the  common  oath  that  they 
would  teach  nothing  contrary  to  the  established  doc- 
trines of  the  church.  The  elector  was  fortunate  in 
securing  some  of  the  celebrated  teachers  of  the  day, 
among  them  the  learned  physician  and  humanist 
Pollich  of  Leipsic  and  the  scholastic  philosopher  Trut- 
vetter  of  Erfurt.  In  fact,  both  the  old  and  the  new 
learning  were  fairly  represented,  and  the  infant  uni- 
versity bore  good  promise  of  prosperity  and  usefulness. 
The  prospectus  of  1507  shows  that  the  noble  art  of 


CLOISTER  OF  THE  AUGUSTINIAN  MONASTERY  IN  ERFURT, 
APPROXIMATELY   AS  IT  WAS  IN  LUTHER'S  TIME 


CHAPEL    OF    THE    AUGUSTINIAN    MONASTERY    IN    ERFURT 


LIFE  AS  A  MONK  33 

advertising  is  not  a  monopoly  of  modern  times. 
"Those  who  are  eager  for  knowledge  should  come  to 
Wittenberg.  The  air  is  excellent,  the  plague  is  entirely 
past,  and  living  is  cheap,  costing  only  eight  gold  gulden 
a  year.  There  one  can  learn  not  only  science,  but  also 
the  best  manners.  The  university,  moreover,  has  re- 
ceived from  pope  and  emperor  all  the  privileges  and 
advantages  enjoyed  by  the  most  ancient  schools,  and 
one  may  be  assured  that  not  even  Padua  or  Bologna, 
the  mother  of  them  all,  possesses  a  greater  number  of 
learned  men." 

Wittenberg,  which  shared  with  Torgau  the  honor  of 
being  an  electoral  residence,  was  selected  as  the  site 
of  the  university  partly  because  the  funds  of  the 
wealthy  castle  church  could  be  used  for  its  sup- 
port, partly  because  there  was  an  Augustinian  mon- 
astery there  which  could  be  relied  upon  for  teachers 
of  philosophy  and  theology.  Its  ecclesiastical  con- 
nections were  therefore  very  close.  Staupitz  was  one 
of  Frederick's  chief  advisers  in  the  matter,  and  he 
assumed  a  professorship  and  became  the  first  dean  of 
the  theological  faculty.  In  furtherance  of  the  elector's 
plan,  he  called  to  Wittenberg  competent  monks  from 
other  places  to  aid  in  the  work  of  instruction.  He  also 
made  the  convent  a  school  for  advanced  theological 
training  such  as  the  Erfurt  monastery  had  long  been, 
and,  as  a  result,  young  Augustinians  came  in  large 
numbers  to  complete  their  studies  and  to  enjoy  at  the 
same  time  the  advantages  of  the  new  university. 

Among  those  drafted  for  the  work  of  instruction 
was  the  young  Luther,  who  was  brought  thither  in  the 
autumn  of  1508  to  teach  Aristotelian  logic  and  ethics. 
A  few  months  afterward  he  wrote  his  friend  Braun  of 
Eisenach  that  philosophy  was  distasteful  to  him  and 
he  much  preferred  theology— "that  theology,  namely, 

3 


34  MARTIN  LUTHER 

which  explores  the  kernel  of  the  nut,  the  heart  of  the 
wheat,  and  the  marrow  of  the  bone."  The  contrast 
between  this  and  his  early  love  of  philosophy  is  worthy 
of  notice,  and  shows  the  influence  of  his  years  in  the 
monastery.  His  wish  to  teach  theology  was  already  in 
the  way  of  being  gratified,  for  a  few  days  before  he 
wrote  he  took  the  bachelor's  degree,  giving  him 
the  right  to  lecture  on  certain  biblical  books  assigned 
by  the  faculty.  There  is  an  entry  in  the  university 
records  to  the  effect  that  he  failed  to  pay  the  required 
fee.  Later  he  himself  appended  the  explanation  that 
he  had  no  money  to  pay  it  with.  He  was  still  bound  by 
his  oath  of  perpetual  poverty ;  he  lived  in  the  monas- 
tery and  received  nothing  for  his  teaching.  His  inabil- 
ity to  meet  the  requirements  in  this  matter  .is  therefore 
not  surprising,  and  was  probably  not  counted  to  his 
discredit. 

It  cannot  be  doubted  that,  in  summoning  him  to 
Wittenberg,  Staupitz  was  moved  by  the  desire  to  take 
him  out  of  himself  and  give  him  an  engrossing  occupa- 
tion in  the  midst  of  new  scenes;  but  of  course  the 
appointment  would  have  been  impossible  had  he  not 
already  given  promise  of  fitness  for  the  place.  He  had 
been  a  faithful  and  zealous  student,  and  the  reputation 
brought  with  him  from  the  university  had  been  en- 
hanced by  his  growing  attainments  both  in  philosophy 
and  theology.  He  was  very  diligent  in  the  study  of 
William  of  Occam  and  other  schoolmen  and,  according 
to  his  friend  Melanchthon,  almost  knew  by  heart  the 
writings  of  Peter  D'Ailly  and  Gabriel  Biel.  The  latter, 
but  recently  deceased,  was  the  pride  of  the  University 
of  Erfurt  and  the  favorite  schoolman  of  the  age  in 
Germany. 

Luther's  studies  also  embraced  the  writings  of  the 
church  fathers  and  particularly  the  Bible,  to  which  he 


LIFE  AS  A  MONK  35 

was  becoming  more  and  more  attached.  It  was  in  his 
twentieth  year,  he  tells  us,  that  he  first  saw  a  complete 
copy  of  the  Scriptures  in  the  university  library  at 
Erfurt.  He  had  hitherto  supposed  they  embraced  only 
the  lessons  read  in  the  public  services,  and  was  de- 
lighted to  find  much  that  was  quite  unfamiliar  to  him. 
His  ignorance,  it  may  be  remarked,  though  not  excep- 
tional, was  his  own  fault.  The  notion  that  Bible 
reading  was  frowned  upon  by  the  ecclesiastical  authori- 
ties of  that  age  is  quite  unfounded.  To  be  sure,  it  was 
not  considered  part  of  a  Christian's  duty,  as  it  is  in 
many  Protestant  churches,  and  few  homes  possessed 
a  copy  of  the  Scriptures;  but  they  were  read  regularly 
in  church,  and  their  study  was  no  more  prohibited  to 
university  students  of  that  day  than  of  this,  and  was 
probably  as  little  practised  by  most  of  them  then  as 
now. 

The  theological  professors  of  Erfurt  differed  widely 
in  their  estimate  of  Bible-study.  Some  favored  it, 
ascribing  to  the  biblical  writers  an  authority  superior 
to  the  fathers  and  schoolmen;  others  advised  against 
it,  because  everything  of  value  in  the  Bible  could  be 
found  in  the  writings  of  the  theologians,  and  its  study 
was  apt  to  foster  pride  and  promote  a  seditious  and 
revolutionary  spirit.  Staupitz  heartily  believed  in  it, 
and  made  it  an  important  part  of  the  requirement  in 
the  theological  course  of  the  Erfurt  monastery.  A  red- 
leather  copy  of  the  Vulgate  was  put  into  Luther's 
hands  soon  after  he  entered  the  convent,  and  he  studied 
it  with  such  diligence  that  he  knew  it,  so  he  says,  from 
cover  to  cover  and  could  tell  exactly  where  every  pas- 
sage was  to  be  found. 

At  the  time  he  took  up  his  work  in  Wittenberg  it 
was  a  small  and  mean  town  of  some  three  thousand 
inhabitants.  It  was  walled  and  somewhat  strongly 


36  MARTIN  LUTHER 

fortified,  and  the  elector,  who  was  an  indefatigable 
builder,  had  beautified  it  with  a  number  of  imposing 
structures;  but  it  still  resembled  a  poor  village  rather 
than  a  city,  and  the  contrast  with  Erfurt  was  extreme. 
The  country,  moreover,  was  flat  and  sandy,  very  unlike 
the  beautiful  Thuringian  hills,  from  which  Luther  had 
come.  His  first  impressions  were  distinctly  unfavor- 
able. He  wondered  why  a  university  should  have  been 
established  in  so  unpromising  a  place,  and  was  sure 
it  was  due  to  the  sins  of  the  early  settlers  that  they 
were  cursed  with  such  a  land.  He  found  the  people 
cold  and  inhospitable  as  well  as  ignorant  and  boorish. 
The  place  lay,  he  thought,  on  the  very  edge  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  a  few  miles  to  the  north  and  east  would  have 
meant  pure  barbarism.  But  it  was  here  he  made  his 
home  for  the  greater  part  of  his  life,  and  it  was  here 
the  Reformation  had  its  birth. 


CHAPTER  III 

VISIT  TO  ROME 

IN  the  autumn  of  1511,  after  his  return  from  a  stay 
of  nearly  two  years  in  Erfurt,  whither  he  had  gone 
apparently  to  teach  theology  in  his  old  monastery, 
Luther  was  suddenly  despatched  to  Rome  by  Staupitz. 
The  Vicar-General's  plans  for  effecting  certain  changes 
in  the  administration  of  the  Augustinian  order  in  Ger- 
many were  opposed  by  some  of  the  convents,  and  he 
consequently  wished  to  lay  the  matter  before  the  curia. 
The  monastic  rules  required  the  brethren  to  travel  two 
by  two,  and  Luther  went  as  the  companion  of  an  older 
monk,  who  was  intrusted  with  the  chief  responsibility 
for  the  business  in  hand.  That  Luther  was  selected 
to  accompany  him  was  another  mark  of  his  superior's 
favor,  for  a  journey  to  Rome  was  one  of  the  rarest 
and  most  highly  coveted  privileges  that  could  fall  to 
the  lot  of  any  monk.  Not  merely  the  natural  interest 
attaching  to  foreign  travel,  but  the  opportunity  to  visit 
scenes  made  sacred  by  apostles  and  martyrs,  and  to 
gain  the  boundless  merit  awaiting  the  believing  pilgrim 
to  the  many  illustrious  shrines  of  the  Eternal  City, 
made  a  journey  to  Rome  an  event  in  the  life  of  the 
pious  equaled  only  by  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land. 
The  fortunate  young  monk  set  out  with  eager  enthu- 
siasm, and  traveled  with  open  ears  and  eyes.  The 
fascination  of  the  goal  did  not  prevent  his  seeing  and 
hearing  many  things  on  the  way.  The  journey  was 

37 


38  MARTIN  LUTHER 

made  on  foot,  the  two  companions  walking  one  behind 
the  other,  with  bowed  heads,  murmuring  their  prayers 
as  they  went,  and  food  and  lodging  were  found  in  the 
monasteries  that  everywhere  lined  the  principal  routes 
of  travel.  It  was  a  tramp  of  twelve  or  thirteen  weeks, 
as  a  rule,  going  and  coming.  The  two  monks  traveled 
leisurely,  and  took  five  months  for  the  trip,  including 
four  full  weeks  in  Rome.  We  have  no  connected 
account  of  the  journey,  but  Luther  referred  to  it 
frequently  in  later  years,  and  it  is  interesting  to  notice 
the  things  he  particularly  saw  and  heard. 

He  found  the  Southern  Germans  obliging  and  hos- 
pitable and  contrasted  them  with  the  unfriendly 
Saxons,  who,  when  a  traveler  appeared,  would  greet 
him  with  the  words :  "My  dear  sir,  I  don't  know  what 
I  can  give  you  to  eat.  My  wife  is  away  from  home, 
and  I  cannot  put  you  up."  The  scenery  of  Switzerland 
apparently  moved  him  little,— the  age  had  not  awak- 
ened to  its  beauty  and  grandeur, — but  he  noticed  the 
countless  herds  of  cattle,  the  industry  and  frugality  of 
the  people,  and  the  good  roads  making  travel  easy. 
"In  Switzerland,"  he  once  remarked,  "they  have  the 
shortest  miles." 

In  Italy  he  had  many  of  the  sensations  of  one  visit- 
ing for  the  first  time  a  country  of  an  older  and  more 
mellow  civilization  than  his  own.  In  comparison  with 
the  Italian  peninsula,  the  Germany  of  that  age  was 
rude  and  uncouth  enough.  He  was  astounded  at  the 
wealth  and  luxury  of  the  people,  who  had  more  de- 
licious things  to  eat  on  fast  days  than  the  Germans  on 
feast  days,  and  he  was  particularly  envious  because  of 
the  elegance  of  their  clothing.  It  pained  his  eyes,  he 
remarked  years  afterward,  to  see  his  own  countrymen 
in  trousers  like  a  ruffled  pigeon,  hopping  about  in  a 
short  coat  like  a  magpie, 


POPE    ALEXANDER   VI 
Detail  from  a  painting  in  Rome  by  Pinturicchio 


VISIT  TO  ROME  39 

He  was  much  struck  with  the  fruit  fulness  of  the 
land  and  could  not  say  enough  of  its  high  state  of 
cultivation  and  the  superior  methods  of  agriculture 
employed.  The  size  of  the  grapes,  peaches,  and  other 
fruits  excited  his  admiration,  and  the  olives  and 
lemons  which  grew  in  the  most  unpromising  places 
became  the  text  for  many  a  sermon  of  later  years.  The 
Po,  whose  like  he  had  never  seen,  he  called  a  prince 
among  rivers— "A  merry  water,  with  the  Alps  and 
the  Apennines  on  either  side."  For  all  the  beauty  and 
fertility  of  the  country,  the  air,  he  discovered,  was 
very  treacherous.  One  night  he  and  his  companion 
slept  with  open  windows  and  awoke  in  the  morning 
with  fever  and  a  raging  thirst,  and  found  themselves 
obliged  to  drink  water,  "deadly  as  it  was,"  because 
they  could  not  endure  even  the  smell  of  wine.  They 
were  finally  cured,  he  avers,  by  eating  a  couple  of 
pomegranates. 

The  sweetness  of  the  Italian  language  delighted  him, 
and  he  picked  up  many  expressions  which  he  remem- 
bered as  long  as  he  lived.  He  was  a  natural  linguist, 
but  admits  he  could  not  vie  with  the  Flemish,  of  whom 
it  was  said,  "If  they  were  carried  through  Italy  or 
France  in  a  sack,  they  would  learn  the  language  on 
the  way."  Like  many  another  traveler  in  a  foreign 
land,  he  thought  the  Italians  knew  their  own  tongue 
very  imperfectly,  and  was  outraged  by  the  bad  Latin 
of  the  monks,  whom  he  condemned  as  a  set  of  igno- 
ramuses because,  it  may  be  supposed,  they  spoke  it 
otherwise  than  he ! 

He  was  greatly  impressed  with  the  hospitals  and 
other  charitable  institutions.  "In  Italy,"  he  said,  "the 
hospitals  are  very  well  fitted  out  and  excellently  built. 
The  food  and  drink  are  good,  the  servants  diligent,  the 
physicians  learned,  the  beds  and  clothing  beautifully 


40  MARTIN  LUTHER 

clean,  and  the  rooms  finely  painted.  As  soon  as  a 
patient  is  brought  in,  his  garments  are  removed  and  an 
accurate  record  of  them  made  by  a  notary,  and  they 
are  carefully  kept  for  him  until  he  has  recovered.  He 
is  clothed  in  a  white  frock  and  laid  in  a  beautiful,  well- 
made  bed  with  clean  sheets.  Soon  two  physicians  are 
called,  and  attendants  appear  with  food  and  drink  in 
clean  dishes  and  glasses  which  they  do  not  touch  even 
with  the  tips  of  their  fingers.  Women  of  good  birth 
are  also  on  hand,  carefully  veiled  that  they  may  not  be 
recognized,  who  spend  several  days  in  turn  caring  for 
the  sick,  and  then  return  home.  All  this  I  saw  in 
Florence,  so  well  kept  were  the  hospitals  there.  The 
foundling  asylums  are  also  similarly  managed.  Chil- 
dren are  nourished,  trained,  and  educated  in  the  best 
possible  fashion,  and  are  well  clothed  and  most  care- 
fully watched  over."  A  fine  tribute,  this,  to  the  Ital- 
ians, and  an  illuminating  commentary  on  the  conditions 
that  must  have  existed  by  contrast  in  Germany. 

The  characters  and  manners  of  the  people  also  inter- 
ested him.  He  found  them  much  more  temperate  than 
the  Germans,  but  tricky,  cunning,  and  suspicious,  not 
open  and  trustful  like  his  own  countrymen.  Their 
more  formal  and  conventional  social  customs  seemed 
unpleasant  to  him  in  comparison  with  the  greater  free- 
dom and  familiarity  of  the  Germans,  and  pointed,  he 
thought,  to  a  corruption  of  morals  unknown  in  the 
North.  One  seems  almost  to  hear  a  New  England 
Puritan  speaking  of  the  impressions  of  his  first  trip 
to  Europe.  The  pride  of  the  people  and  their  con- 
tempt for  the  Germans,  whom  they  laughed  at  for  their 
stolidity,  simplicity,  and  lack  of  culture,  greatly  an- 
noyed him.  In  revenge  he  speaks  with  the  utmost 
scorn  of  the  nervousness  and  excitability  of  the  Italians, 
and  the  noise  they  made  over  the  smallest  trifles. 


VISIT  TO  ROME  41 

It  was  like  him  to  take  the  brothers  sharply  to  task, 
as  he  is  reported  to  have  done  in  one  of  the  convents 
where  he  stopped  overnight,  for  their  lax  observance 
of  the  prescribed  rules  of  fasting.  As  a  result  of  his 
well-meant  efforts,  he  almost  lost  his  life,  escaping  only 
by  the  aid  of  a  friendly  porter.  The  incident  did  not 
increase  his  confidence  either  in  the  piety  or  the  virtue 
of  the  Italians.  He  brought  back,  indeed,  a  very  poor 
opinion  of  the  religious  and  moral  condition  of  the 
country.  Vice  was  shamefully  prevalent,  the  churches 
were  almost  deserted,  and  the  use  of  the  phrase  "a 
good  Christian"  to  denote  a  harmless  but  weak-minded 
person  seemed  typical  of  the  general  attitude. 

Approaching  Rome  from  the  north,  the  traveler  by 
the  highroad  catches  his  first  glimpse  of  the  city  some 
haif -dozen  miles  away,  where  the  road  slopes  gradu- 
ally toward  the  Tiber.  Here  Luther,  overcome  with 
emotion,  threw  himself  on  his  knees  and  cried :  "Hail, 
Holy  Rome !  Thrice  holy  thou  in  whom  the  blood  of 
the  martyrs  has  been  poured  out!"  Over  the  Milvian 
bridge  the  two  companions  made  their  way  and  entered 
the  city  by  the  Porta  Flaminia.  Just  inside  it  stood  the 
Augustinian  monastery,  where  they  were  to  stay,  and 
the  church  of  Maria  del  Popolo,  where,  according  to 
tradition,  Brother  Martin  said  his  first  mass  within 
the  city  walls.  A  contemporary  guide-book  intended 
for  the  use  of  pilgrims,  a  copy  of  which  was  very 
likely  in  his  hands  as  he  went  about  the  city,  gives  a 
very  characteristic  account  of  the  origin  of  the  church : 

Where  the  church  is,  there  once  stood  a  great  walnut- 
tree  in  which  devils  made  their  home.  Whoever  hap- 
pened to  pass  by  they  vilified  and  slandered,  and  no  one 
knew  who  did  it.  It  was  revealed  to  St.  Pascal  the  pope 
that  he  should  cut  down  the  tree  and  build  a  church  in  its 
place  to  the  honor  of  our  dear  Lady.  The  pope  therefore 


42  MARTIN  LUTHER    * 

went  to  the  Porta  Flaminia  with  a  great  procession  of 
clergy  and  laity  and  rooted  the  tree  out  of  the  earth. 
Under  it  there  was  found  a  coffin  containing  the  body  of 
the  wicked  Nero,  who  put  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  to  death 
with  many  other  Christians.  The  same  Nero  set  fire  to 
Rome  in  twelve  places  that  he  might  see  how  great  a 
conflagration  it  would  make.  The  Romans  consequently 
wished  to  put  him  in  prison,  but  he  stabbed  himself,  and 
was  buried  in  the  above-mentioned  place.  Afterward 
Pope  Pascal  burned  to  ashes  the  body  of  the  wicked  Nero 
and  the  walnut-tree,  and  exorcised  all  the  devils  that  were 
in  the  tree,  and  built  a  church,  which  was  called  Maria 
del  Popolo  because  of  the  multitude  of  people  there. 

The  business  which  brought  the  two  monks  to  Rome 
seems  not  to  have  taken  much  of  Luther's  time.  He 
praises  the  admirable  methods  of  the  curia  and  its 
celerity  and  skill  in  despatching  business,  but  he  was 
interested  chiefly  in  other  things,  and  during  his  four 
weeks  in  the  city  he  was  an  eager  and  indefatigable 
sight-seer. 

For  Italian  art,  then  at  the  zenith  of  its  glory,  he 
had  little  appreciation.  It  could  hardly  be  expected  that 
he  would,  and  he  never  pretended  an  interest  he  did  not 
feel.  For  ancient  Rome  he  had  more  of  an  eye.  Then,  as 
now,  only  broken  fragments  of  it  remained.  Rome,  he 
said,  "is  like  a  dead  carcass  compared  with  its  former 
state,  for  houses  now  stand  where  were  roofs  in  other 
days,  so  deep  is  the  debris.  This  can  beclearly  seen  by  the 
banks  of  the  Tiber,  which  are  piled  two  spear-lengths 
high  with  rubbish."  He  spent  two  weeks  visiting  all 
the  ruins,  at  the  peril  of  his  life,  for  they  were  a 
favorite  haunt  of  brigands,  who  levied  heavy  toll  of 
purse  and  limb  upon  pious  and  worldly  alike.  The 
Pantheon,  the  Colosseum,  the  baths  of  Diocletian,  and 
the  aqueducts  spanning  the  Campagna  with  their 


From  a  photograph  by  Anderson 

POPE  JULIUS  II,  AFTER  THE  PAINTING  BY  RAPHAEL  IN  THE 
UFFIZI  GALLERY,  FLORENCE 


VISIT  TO  ROME  43 

gaunt  arches,  interested  him  most.  He  wondered  that 
the  ancients  were  able  to  accomplish  so  much,  and  to 
attain  so  high  a  degree  of  civilization,  without  a  know- 
ledge of  the  true  God,  and  the  transformation  of  the 
heathen  Pantheon  into  a  Christian  church  gave  him 
congenial  food  for  moralizing.  And  yet  he  was  alive 
to  the  greatness  of  the  old  world,  and  his  admiration 
for  it  speaks  through  all  he  says.  If  he  did  not  bring 
to  Rome  the  enthusiastic  devotion  to  the  classical  an- 
tique that  marked  the  humanists  of  the  day,  he  at  least 
had  a  knowledge  of  human  history  and  a  fondness  for 
it  which  made  its  dead  monuments  alive  with  interest. 
But  he  was  more  devotee  than  sight-seer,  and  the 
greater  part  of  his  stay  in  Rome  was  spent  in  visiting 
churches  and  other  sacred  places  and  in  performing 
acts  of  religious  devotion.  The  city's  chief  interest 
for  him  lay  not  in  its  art  treasures  or  antiquities,  but  in 
the  "hundreds  of  thousands"  of  martyrs  who  had  con- 
secrated it  with  their  blood.  Their  relics  he  sought 
diligently  in  church  and  catacomb,  and  from  the  sight 
of  them  he  hoped  to  gain  rich  spiritual  blessings.  He 
climbed  on  his  knees  the  Scala  Santa,  reputed  to  have 
been  brought  from  Pilate's  palace  in  Jerusalem,  where 
it  was  trodden  by  Christ  at  the  time  of  his  trial,  and 
the  ascent  of  which  insured  years  of  indulgence  to  the 
pious  and  believing  pilgrim.  He  made  a  general  con- 
fession of  all  the  sins  of  his  past  life,  an  act  already 
performed  twice,  but  promising  in  Rome  far  greater 
rewards  of  grace,  and  he  said  mass  ten  times  during 
his  stay  in  the  city.  He  even  wished  his  father  and 
mother  were  dead  that  he  might  be  able  to  release 
them  from  purgatory  by  his  penitential  exercises.  He 
was  troubled  with  no  doubts,  but  ran,  as  he  said,  from 
holy  place  to  holy  place,  greedily  swallowing  all  that 
was  told  him,  however  improbable  or  absurd.  "O 


44  MARTIN  LUTHER 

dear  God/'  he  cried,  "what  did  I  not  believe !  Every- 
thing seemed  true,  and  nothing  was  so  preposterous  or 
false  that  I  did  not  accept  it  gladly."  His  pious  heart 
was  torn  with  emotion  or  kindled  with  ecstasy  as  he 
visited  the  scenes  hallowed  by  apostles  and  martyrs 
and  gazed  upon  their  sacred  relics.  Never  more  credu- 
lous and  simple-minded  believer  set  foot  in  the  holy 
city  and  reveled  in  its  wealth  of  pious  memories. 

He  saw  much,  it  is  true,  to  trouble  and  distress  him. 
The  city  was  perhaps  no  worse  than  other  great  capi- 
tals, but  it  was  the  first  he  had  visited  and  its  corrup- 
tion pained  and  amazed  him.  Then,  too,  the  monks 
he  met  were  much  less  reverent  than  the  simple- 
hearted  German,  and  made  light  of  many  things  he 
held  dear.  It  was  not  unnatural  that  they  should  take 
delight  in  shocking  the  unsophisticated  young  pilgrim, 
and  doubtless  they  painted  Roman  life  in  lurid  colors 
before  his  astonished  eyes.  He  was  told  extraordinary 
tales  about  the  debauchery  and  vice  of  great  church 
dignitaries,  including  the  late  Pope  Alexander  VI  of 
notorious  memory— tales  which  lost  nothing  in  the  tell- 
ing. But  he  was  too  devout  a  soul,  too  absorbed  in  the 
sacred  treasures  of  the  holy  city,  and  too  engrossed 
in  the  task  of  securing  divine  favor  by  works  of  pen- 
ance, to  think  much  about  such  tales.  If  others  were 
not  all  they  should  be,  he  would  do  his  duty  the  more 
faithfully.  Distrust  of  the  church  or  questions  as  to 
the  sanctity  and  authority  of  the  papacy  did  not  enter 
his  mind.  In  later  years  he  not  infrequently  spoke 
sharply  of  the  worldly  and  warlike  character  of  the 
great  soldier  and  statesman  Julius  II,  who  was  pope 
at  the  time  of  his  Roman  visit,  but  when  in  the  holy 
city,  we  may  be  sure,  he  thought  of  him  only  with 
devout  reverence.  It  was  of  this  period  of  his  life  he 
said  long  afterward,  "I  was  so  filled,  yes,  so  intoxicated 


VISIT  TO  ROME  45 

with  the  pope's  teaching  that  I  should  have  been  ready 
with  great  eagerness  to  murder,  or  at  least  to  approve 
and  assist  in  the  murder  of  all  that  did  not  obey  and 
submit  to  him  in  every  last  syllable." 

The  significance  of  his  visit  to  Rome  has  been 
greatly  exaggerated  by  most  historians.  The  presence 
of  the  founder  of  Protestantism  in  the  very  strong- 
hold of  the  papacy  which  he  afterward  so  earnestly 
opposed  seems  full  of  dramatic  possibilities,  and  it  is 
easy,  especially  for  those  who  paint  contemporary 
Catholicism  only  in  the  darkest  colors,  to  think  it  must 
have  aroused  his  reforming  spirit  and  started  him  upon 
his  great  work.  But  the  truth  is  the  Roman  journey 
was  no  more  than  an  interesting  episode  in  his  life, 
and  though  it  doubtless  enriched  his  mind  and  broad- 
ened his  outlook,  as  all  travel  does,  it  had  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  his  career  as  a  reformer.  That 
career  had  other  and  altogether  different  roots.  To 
be  sure,  when  the  break  with  Rome  came,  it  was  easier 
to  attack  the  pope  because  of  what  he  had  seen  and 
heard  in  the  papal  capital,  for  things  then  took  on  a 
new  aspect,  and  idle  tales  to  which  he  had  hardly 
given  heed  were  made  to  justify  an  enmity  all  the 
more  bitter  because  of  the  devotion  it  succeeded.  In 
this  mood  he  once  declared  he  would  not  take  a 
hundred  thousand  gulden  for  the  experiences  of  his 
Roman  visit;  but  when  he  said  it  he  was  thinking  of 
the  incidents  which  meant  least  to  him  when  he  was 
actually  there  and  made  scarcely  any  impression  at 
the  time  upon  his  reverent  soul. 

He  gained,  indeed,  all  he  had  hoped  from  his  pil- 
grimage, and  returned  as  devout  as  ever  and  with  a  new 
enthusiasm  for  Holy  Mother  Church,  which  the  sight 
of  the  countless  mementos  of  a  long  and  glorious  past 
could  not  but  kindle  in  his  sensitive  and  passionate  heart. 


CHAPTER  IV 

PREACHER,  PROFESSOR,  AND  DISTRICT-VICAR 

IN  the  spring  of  1512,  Luther  was  back  again  in  Wit- 
tenberg, enriched  by  the  experiences  of  his  Italian 
journey  and  prepared  to  give  himself  with  new  en- 
thusiasm to  his  university  work.  He  was  already  a 
marked  man.  That  he  had  seen  the  sacred  city  greatly 
enhanced  his  reputation  with  his  brother  monks,  and 
the  signal  favor  of  Staupitz  naturally  attracted  atten- 
tion to  him.  He  was  evidently  proving  his  ability, 
for  new  duties  and  responsibilities  were  laid  upon  him 
by  his  patron,  and  he  was  advanced  rapidly  to  one  posi- 
tion of  influence  after  another. 

In  October,  having  completed  the  requirements  and 
engaged  in  the  customary  disputations,  he  was  given 
the  doctorate  of  theology  by  the  University  of  Witten- 
berg. During  his  recent  stay  in  Erfurt  he  had  taken 
the  degree  of  Sententiarius,  a  necessary  step  in  the  line 
of  promotion  to  the  doctorate.  As  Sententiarius  he  was 
expected  to  lecture  upon  the  "Sentences"  of  Lombard, 
the  great  theological  text-book  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  he  did  so  for  a  year  and  a  half  before  setting  out 
upon  his  Italian  journey.  There  still  exists  a  copy  of 
Lombard's  work  with  marginal  notes  made  at  this  time 
by  Luther  himself.  These  as  well  as  similar  notes  in 
certain  volumes  of  Augustine's  works  show  how  in- 
dependent he  already  was  in  his  way  of  looking  at 
things  and  how  confident  of  the  correctness  of  his 

46 


PREACHER  AND  PROFESSOR     47 

opinions.  Of  deviation  from  catholic  orthodoxy  there 
is  no  sign,  but  there  are  many  severe  words  about 
theologians  whom  he  disagreed  with,  giving  a  fore- 
taste of  the  vivid  imagination  and  picturesque  language 
characterizing  all  his  polemic.  He  already  had  the 
reputation  of  being  unduly  critical  and  contentious, 
and  the  Erfurt  monks,  we  are  told,  were  not  altogether 
sorry  when  he  left  them  permanently. 

The  doctorate  to  which  he  was  promoted  in  Witten- 
berg gave  him  the  right  to  teach  the  whole  subject  of 
theology  without  limitations  of  any  kind  except  those 
imposed  by  loyalty  to  university  and  church.  The 
doctor's  oath  ran  as  follows : 

I  swear  obedience  and  due  reverence  to  the  dean  and 
masters  of  the  theological  faculty,  and  promise  to  do  all  I 
can  to  promote  the  welfare  of  the  university  and  particu- 
larly of  the  theological  faculty ;  not  to  take  the  degree  else- 
where ;  not  to  teach  vain  and  foreign  doctrines  which  are 
condemned  by  the  church  and  hurt  pious  ears,  but  to  in- 
form the  dean  within  eight  days  if  I  know  of  their  being 
taught  by  any  one ;  to  maintain  the  customs,  liberties,  and 
privileges  of  the  theological  faculty  to  the  best  of  my 
ability,  God  helping  me,  and  the  holy  evangelists. 

The  degree  was  a  costly  affair,  and,  at  the  solicita- 
tion of  Staupitz,  the  elector  defrayed  the  expense.  One 
of  the  earliest  autographs  of  Luther  we  possess  is  his 
receipt  for  the  sum  of  fifty  gulden,  which  he  had  to 
walk  all  the  way  to  Leipsic  to  fetch  for  himself,  almost 
returning  home  without  it,  in  his  impatience  at  the  red- 
tape  involved.  Unnecessary  formalities  always  an- 
noyed him,  and  if  he  had  had  his  way,  he  would  have 
made  short  shrift  of  the  elaborate  bureaucratic  methods 
of  the  day. 

That  he  took  the  doctor's  degree  in  Wittenberg  in- 


48  MARTIN  LUTHER 

stead  of  Erfurt  brought  down  upon  him  the  wrath  of 
the  authorities  of  the  latter  university,  who  felt  they 
had  a  claim  on  him  as  their  own  Magister  and  Senten- 
tiarius,  and  resented  his  going  elsewhere  for  the  high- 
est degree.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  ought  to  have  ob- 
tained a  dispensation  from  them  before  taking  it  in 
Wittenberg.  His  failure  to  do  so,  probably  due  to 
mere  carelessness,  was  thoroughly  characteristic,  for 
he  often  showed  a  disregard  of  the  conventionalities 
and  proprieties  that  made  him  many  enemies.  In  this 
particular  case,  the  bad  feeling  in  Erfurt  was  overcome 
only  after  years,  and  as  a  result  of  humble  apologies 
on  his  part  and  of  the  good  offices  of  common  friends. 

Although  it  was  the  natural  and  obvious  thing  for 
a  Sententiarius  to  take  the  doctor's  degree,  Luther  did 
it  very  unwillingly,  and  only  in  obedience  to  the  im- 
perative command  of  Staupitz,  who  wished  to  retire 
from  his  professorship  and  make  his  protege  his 
successor.  This  fact  explains  the  young  scholar's 
reluctance.  For  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  his 
superior's  chair  he  felt,  as  was  not  unnatural,  scarcely 
qualified.  At  the  age  of  twenty-nine  to  succeed  his 
famous  teacher  and  patron,  whom  he  held  in  un- 
bounded reverence,  might  well  seem  to  almost  any  one 
too  large  a  task. 

Despite  his  hesitancy  to  take  the  degree,  he  was  al- 
ways proud  of  it.  As  a  doctor  of  theology,  he  claimed  it 
gave  him  not  only  the  right,  but  the  duty,  to  teach  the 
truth  as  he  found  it,  and  in  later  years  he  continually 
appealed  to  it  in  justification  of  his  innovations.  That 
he  had  not  sought  the  degree,  but  had  taken  it  against 
his  will,  called  thereto,  as  he  later  believed,  by  God, 
gave  him  all  the  more  confidence  in  his  course.  "Who 
compelled  the  Lord  to  make  me  a  doctor?  Since  He 
did  it  of  His  own  will,  let  come  what  may !" 


PREACHER  AND  PROFESSOR  49 

In  addition  to  his  duties  as  professor,  he  also  had 
regular  preaching  to  do.  Practice  in  preaching  was  a 
necessary  part  of  his  preparation  for  the  doctor's  de- 
gree, but  greatly  as  he  loved  it  afterward,  when  he  was 
accustomed  to  find  the  hour  spent  in  the  pulpit  the  most 
beautiful  of  all  the  day,  he  dreaded  to  begin,  and  Stau- 
pitz  was  obliged  to  use  pressure  to  compel  him  to  do  so, 
dragging  him  into  it  by  the  hair,  as  Luther  once  re- 
marked. Years  afterward,  talking  to  a  young  theolo- 
gian who  found  preaching  a  great  burden,  he  said: 
"Yes,  my  dear  fellow,  it  was  the  same  with  me.  I 
shrank  from  it  just  as  you  do;  but  I  had  to  undertake 
it.  I  was  forced  to  it,  and  I  began  in  the  refectory, 
before  the  brothers.  Oh,  how  frightened  I  was!  I 
had  fifteen  arguments  with  which  I  tried  to  persuade 
Dr.  Staupitz,  under  this  very  pear-tree,  to  let  me  off, 
but  they  did  no  good.  Finally  when  I  said,  'You  are 
trying  to  kill  me;  I  cannot  live  three  months/  he  re- 
plied :  'Very  well,  in  God's  name.  The  Lord  has  large 
affairs  on  hand,  and  needs  wise  men  up  yonder.' ' 

Despite  his  trepidation  at  seeing  so  many  heads  be- 
fore him,  as  he  once  put  it,  the  preacher's  gift  was  his. 
Vivid  imagination,  picturesqueness  of  style,  fluency  of 
speech,  personal  magnetism,  passionate  earnestness, 
and  an  uncommon  knowledge  of  the  religious  emotions 
born  of  his  own  heart-searching  experiences — all  these 
he  had.  He  knew,  too,  the  great  secret  of  effective 
preaching,  simplicity.  "I  preach  as  simply  as  I  can," 
he  once  remarked,  "that  common  men,  children,  and 
servants  may  understand;  for  the  learned  already 
know  it  all,  and  I  do  not  preach  for  them."  No 
wonder  he  made  an  impression  upon  those  who  heard 
him  and  his  reputation  grew  apace.  He  was  soon 
in  demand  as  a  supply  in  the  city  church,  and  in  1514 
became  the  regular  incumbent  of  its  pulpit.  The  little 


50  MARTIN  LUTHER 

town  of  Wittenberg  had  never  heard  his  like  before. 
Few  towns  indeed  had,  for  he  was  one  of  the  great 
preachers  of  history.  Beginning  modestly,  his  power 
steadily  increased  until  he  held  his  congregations  in  the 
hollow  of  his  hand.  We  have  hundreds  of  sermons 
from  his  pen,  after  the  first  few  years  unconventional 
and  unsystematic  for  the  most  part,  often  conversa- 
tional and  almost  casual  in  style,  and  sometimes  com- 
monplace enough,  but  again  rich  in  matter,  glowing 
with  genius,  and  inimitable  in  their  appeal  to  the  heart 
of  the  common  man.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  repeat 
himself,  and  upon  certain  great  themes  he  loved  to 
preach  over  and  over  again.  "The  time  and  the  oc- 
casion," as  he  said,  "make  a  preacher.  I  cannot  allow 
myself  to  be  bound  to  particular  words.  I  often  say 
the  same  things  in  different  words." 

During  this  period  his  influence  in  the  Augustinian 
order  was  also  steadily  advancing.  In  the  summer  of 
1512,  he  was  made  subprior  of  the  Wittenberg  con- 
vent, and  not  long  afterward  was  placed  in  full  charge 
of  theological  instruction  within  its  walls.  His  success 
as  a  teacher  was  very  great,  and  young  monks  came  in 
increasing  numbers  to  put  themselves  under  his  tute- 
lage, until  he  had  to  protest  that  the  convent  was  over- 
taxed and  could  not  accommodate  all  that  were  sent 
to  him. 

In  1515,  when  only  thirty-one  years  old,  he  was 
appointed  district-vicar  of  the  order  for  a  term  of 
three  years,  and  had  to  look  after  the  interests  and 
superintend  the  affairs  of  eleven  monasteries.  The 
knowledge  and  experience  thus  gained  were  of  incal- 
culable benefit  to  him.  The  administrative  duties  of 
the  position  were  very  onerous,  and  required  him  to  be 
much  away  from  Wittenberg  and  to  give  his  attention 
to  all  sorts  of  matters,  from  the  appointment  and  re- 


»•• 


PREACHER  AND  PROFESSOR  51 

moval  of  priors  to  the  repair  of  buildings  and  the  audit- 
ing of  accounts.  He  was  at  once  business  manager  of 
the  convents  under  his  charge  and  spiritual  adviser  to 
their  inmates. 

He  was  a  strict  disciplinarian,  as  is  shown,  for  in- 
stance, by  the  following  passage  from  a  letter  to  the 
provost  of  a  monastery  of  another  order  concerning  a 
brother  who  had  committed  some  serious  offense. 

It  is  difficult  for  me  to  advise  you  what  to  do  with  him, 
for  I  am  ignorant  of  your  statutes.  If  they  do  not  pro- 
vide life  imprisonment  or  capital  punishment  for  such  a 
crime,  it  seems  to  me  he  should  receive  as  severe  a  pen- 
alty as  they  allow,  for  it  is  not  you  who  punish,  but  justice 
and  law,  whose  minister,  not  lord,  you  are.  Do  not  be 
dissuaded  by  the  fact  that  you  are  as  great  a  sinner  or  a 
greater.  It  is  enough  to  confess  this  to  God.  But  here 
for  the  sake  of  edification  we  must  nearly  always  punish 
those  better  than  we,  teach  those  more  learned,  rule  those 
more  worthy,  that  the  Lord's  words  may  be  fulfilled, 
"The  princes  of  the  Gentiles  rule  over  them  as  over  in- 
feriors, but  the  princes  of  believers  minister  to  them  as 
to  superiors,"  for  He  says,  "He  who  is  the  greater  among 
you  let  him  be  your  servant,"  etc.  Therefore  preserve 
humility  and  gentleness  of  heart  toward  him,  but  treat 
him  rigorously,  for  power  is  not  thine,  but  God's,  while 
humility  ought  to  be  not  God's,  but  thine. 


At  the  same  time  he  had  a  warm  regard  for  his 
monks,  and  showed  uncommon  sympathy  and  kindness 
toward  offenders.  Witness  this  letter  to  the  Augus- 
tinian  prior  in  Mayence : 

I  am  sorry  to  hear  that  a  certain  brother,  George  Baum- 
gartner,  from  our  cloister  in  Dresden,  who  fled,  alas !  be- 
cause guilty  of  shameful  conduct,  has  taken  refuge  with 
you.  I  thank  you  for  your  faithfulness  and  kindness  in 


52  MARTIN  LUTHER 

receiving  him,  that  the  scandal  might  be  stopped.  He  is 
my  lost  sheep  and  belongs  to  me ;  mine  it  is  to  seek  him 
and  to  restore  the  erring  one,  if  it  please  the  Lord  Jesus. 
So  I  beg  you  by  our  common  faith  in  Christ  and  by  the 
order  of  St.  Augustine  that,  if  you  can,  you  will  send  him 
to  me  to  Dresden  or  Wittenberg,  or  will  lovingly  persuade 
him  to  return  of  his  own  free  will.  I  shall  receive  him 
with  open  arms  if  he  comes.  He  need  have  no  fear  of 
my  displeasure.  I  know,  I  know,  that  offenses  must 
come,  and  it  is  no  marvel  when  a  man  falls,  but  it  is  a 
miracle  when  he  recovers  himself  and  remains  steadfast. 
Peter  fell  that  he  might  know  he  was  human.  To-day 
even  the  cedars  of  Lebanon  fall,  though  while  they  stand 
they  reach  the  heavens.  Yes,  even  an  angel  in  heaven 
fell,— a  wonder  it  was  indeed,— and  Adam  fell  in  para- 
dise. So  is  it  surprising  the  reed  should  bend  before  the 
storm  and  the  smoking  flax  be  extinguished? 

The  amount  of  work  entailed  by  his  various  respon- 
sibilities is  indicated  clearly  enough  in  a  letter  to  Lang, 
written  in  1516. 

I  almost  need  two  secretaries,  for  I  do  hardly  any- 
thing the  whole  day  long  but  write  letters.  It  may  be  I 
continually  repeat  myself  in  consequence;  if  so,  you  will 
understand  why.  I  am  lecturer  in  the  cloister  and  reader 
at  meals ;  I  am  daily  asked  to  preach  in  the  parish  church ; 
I  am  director  of  studies ;  I  am  vicar,  which  means  being 
prior  eleven  times  over ;  inspector  of  fish-ponds  at  Leitz- 
kau ;  advocate  of  the  Herzbergers'  cause  at  Torgau ;  I  am 
lecturing  on  Paul,  and  gathering  material  on  the  Psalms 
—all  this  besides  my  letter-writing,  which,  as  I  have  said, 
takes  the  greater  part  of  my  time.  Rarely  do  I  have  time 
to  observe  the  hours  of  prayer,  or  to  say  mass,  and  I  am 
plagued  besides  by  temptations  of  the  world,  the  flesh,  and 
the  devil.  Behold  what  a  man  of  leisure  I  am ! .  .  . 

You  write  that  you  began  to  lecture  on  the  Sentences 
yesterday.  I  shall  begin  to  expound  the  Epistle  to  the 
Galatians  to-morrow,  although  I  fear,  with  the  plague 


PREACHER  AND  PROFESSOR     53 

here,  I  shall  not  be  able  to  continue.  Already  it  has 
robbed  us  of  two  or  three,  but  not  in  one  day.  The  smith 
opposite  has  just  buried  a  son  who  was  in  good  health 
yesterday,  and  another  is  infected.  Yes,  it  is  here,  and  is 
beginning  to  rage  with  violence,  especially  among  the 
young.  You  counsel  me  to  flee  to  you  for  refuge  in  com- 
pany with  Brother  Bartholomew.  But  why?  I  hope  the 
world  will  not  come  to  an  end,  though  Brother  Martin 
perish.  If  the  plague  spread,  I  shall  send  the  brothers 
away.  As  for  me,  seeing  I  have  been  placed  here,  my 
vows  of  obedience  demand  that  I  remain  until  ordered 
elsewhere.  Not  that  I  do  not  fear  death,  for  I  am  not 
the  apostle  Paul,  but  only  a  reader  of  the  apostle ;  but  I 
hope  the  Lord  will  deliver  me  from  my  fear. 

Despite  all  the  occupations  to  which  he  refers,  he 
still  had  to  discharge  his  religious  duties  as  a  monk. 
Seven  times  a  day  he  was  required  to  engage  in  his 
devotions,  and  they  consumed  much  time.  He  once 
remarked  that  when  it  proved  quite  impossible,  as  it 
often  did,  to  observe  the  canonical  hours  day  by  day, 
he  would  shut  himself  in  his  cell  on  Saturday  and  make 
up  in  a  single  day  for  all  the  omissions  of  the  week. 
This  kind  of  thing,  of  course,  tended  to  weaken  the 
hold  of  his  monastic  ties  upon  him.  Evidently  consci- 
entious as  he  still  was,  his  life  was  no  longer  primarily 
that  of  a  monk.  He  was  a  teacher,  a  preacher,  and  an 
administrator,  and  his  various  functions  took  him  out 
into  the  world  and  brought  him  into  as  intimate  con- 
tact with  men  and  affairs  as  if  he  had  never  seen  the 
inside  of  a  monastery.  He  often  lamented  it,  and 
longed  for  the  quiet  and  seclusion  of  the  Erfurt  days ; 
but  there  can  be  no  doubt  he  was  much  happier  and  his 
life  far  more  wholesome  as  it  was. 

With  all  his  labors,  he  was  not  without  social  recrea- 
tion. His  vivacity  and  enthusiasm,  his  contagious  hu- 


54  MARTIN  LUTHER 

mor,  his  fascinating  conversation,  his  novel  way  of 
looking  at  men  and  things,  and  his  personal  charm,  all 
combined  to  give  him  warm  admirers  wherever  he 
went,  and  in  Wittenberg  the  circle  of  his  friends  was 
large  and  apparently  included  everybody  worth  know- 
ing in  the  little  city.  An  amusing  note  of  invitation 
to  his  old  and  intimate  friend  George  Spalatin,  the 
elector's  chaplain,  gives  us  an  interesting  glimpse  of 
the  social  side  of  his  life. 

Greeting.  Come  with  the  father  confessor  and  his 
friend  about  nine  o'clock.  If  the  Lord  Christopher,  the 
ambassador,  is  with  you,  bring  him,  too.  The  duty  of 
inviting  him  has  been  intrusted  to  my  Otto.  Farewell, 
but  see  that  you  also  procure  wine  for  us ;  for  you  know 
you  are  coming  from  the  castle  to  the  monastery,  not 
from  the  monastery  to  the  castle. 

It  is  this  same  Spalatin  whose  praise  of  Luther  is 
the  earliest  explicit  testimony  we  have  to  his  character 
and  ability.  Writing  in  1514  to  their  common  friend 
Lang,  he  spoke  of  Luther's  rare  combination  of  the 
keenest  judgment  with  great  learning  and  purity  of 
character.  For  many  years  he  was  an  important  figure 
in  Luther's  life.  He  had  belonged  to  the  literary 
circle  in  Erfurt,  where  the  two  first  met,  and  for  a 
long  time  was  freer  in  his  views  than  his  friend,  though 
he  was  cooler  and  more  cautious,  a  man  of  the  world 
rather  than  a  religious  zealot,  and  would  never  have 
thought  of  devoting  himself  to  the  work  of  reform. 
When  the  great  controversy  came,  he  stood  with 
Luther,  but  he  did  what  he  could  to  restrain  his  im- 
petuosity and  to  keep  him  from  going  too  far.  A  tact- 
ful courtier  and  a  wise  counselor,  he  held  an  important 
place  at  court,  and  his  influence  with  the  elector  was 
great.  He  did  much  to  promote  Luther's  credit  with 


lrroiu  an  old  pri 


GEORGE    Sl'ALATIN 


PREACHER  AND  PROFESSOR     55 

the  prince,  and  was  commonly  the  medium  'o'f  com*--; ! 
munication  between  the  two.     In  fact,  .he  was; 'an-.  iti-:\: 
valuable  as  well  as  a  dearly  loved  friend,  arid  Luttie'rV 
correspondence  with  him,  covering  many  of  the  most 
critical  years  of  his  life,  is  one  of  our  most  important 
and  interesting  sources  of  information. 

The  famous  painter,  Lucas  Cranach,  who  stood  very 
high  in  the  community  and  was  for  a  time  burgomaster 
of  the  town,  though  considerably  older  than  Luther, 
was  also  one  of  his  intimates.  He  was  not  merely  an 
artist,  but  a  prosperous  business  man,  whose  printing 
establishment  and  apothecary  shop  materially  added 
to  the  financial  returns  from  his  studio.  He  had  come 
to  Wittenberg  originally  on  Frederick's  invitation  to 
fill  the  position  of  court  painter,  and  was  ultimately 
raised  to  the  nobility.  From  his  brush  we  have  many 
faithful,  if  not  inspired,  portraits  of  some  of  the  lead- 
ing notables  of  the  day,  including  the  reformer  him- 
self, whom  he  painted  frequently.  With  him  and  his 
family  Luther  enjoyed  the  closest  friendship  as  long 
as  he  lived,  and  the  stately  home  of  the  prosperous 
artist  was  one  of  his  favorite  resorts. 

He  was  on  terms  of  affectionate  intimacy,  too,  with 
many  of  his  colleagues,  among  others  the  brilliant  and 
impetuous  theologian  Carlstadt,  the  more  sober  and 
solid  Nicholas  von  Amsdorf,  the  punctilious  and  cau- 
tious ecclesiastical  lawyer  Jerome  Schurf,  and  the  lib- 
eral and  cultivated  jurist  Christopher  Scheurl.  To  the 
latter,  who  early  left  Wittenberg  to  become  city  coun- 
cilor of  Nuremberg,  Luther  once  wrote  in  a  playful 
mood :  'The  money  I  realized  by  the  sale  of  the  books 
you  sent  I  have  given,  in  accordance  with  your  direc- 
tions, to  the  poor— that  is,  to  myself  and  the  brethren, 
for  I  have  never  known  anybody  poorer  than  I." 

In  his  relations  with  all  his  friends,  Luther's  com- 


56  MARTIN  LUTHER 

manding  personality  asserted  itself  unmistakably.  He 
dominated  every  circle  he  belonged  to,  and  his  inti- 
mates, as  time  passed,  recognizing  more  and  more  his 
superior  genius  and  capacity  for  leadership,  fell  natur- 
ally, whether  older  or  younger,  into  the  position  of 
followers.  To  be  sure,  many  were  offended  by  him, 
and  thought  him  arrogant  and  overbearing,  but  in 
most  of  those  who  knew  him  there  was  steadily  grow- 
ing affection  and  loyalty. 

Curiously  enough,  Luther  never  met  the  Elector 
Frederick,  near  as  were  the  palace  and  the  monastery, 
and  intimate  as  were  his  relations  with  some  of  the 
members  of  the  court.  It  was  like  him  not  to  seek 
the  acquaintance  of  his  prince,  for  he  was  the  last  man 
to  curry  favor  with  the  great.  Frederick  thought 
highly  of  him,  and  showed  him  many  marks  of  favor. 
Soon  after  Luther's  arrival  in  Wittenberg,  he  had  been 
assured  by  Staupitz  that  the  young  scholar  would  yet 
be  an  honor  to  his  darling  university,  and  as  early  as 
1512  he  had  heard  him  preach  and  been  much  im- 
pressed. But  at  first  there  was  no  reason  for  summon- 
ing him  to  court,  and  after  Luther  had  gained  world- 
wide prominence,  the  elector's  native  prudence  kept 
him  from  identifying  himself  too  intimately  with  the 
reformer's  affairs. 

On  Luther's  part,  natural  loyalty  was  enhanced  by 
genuine  respect  for  his  sovereign.  Writing  to  Spalatin 
in  1518,  he  expressed  his  thanks  "to  the  most  illustri- 
ous prince  for  the  fine  and  truly  princely  gift  of  veni- 
son which  he  sent  our  new  graduates,  and  which  I  told 
them  came  from  him.  The  mind  of  the  most  kindly 
and  generous  prince,  as  you  justly  call  him,  has  pleased 
me  especially,  for  man,  too,  loves  a  cheerful  giver." 

The  following  are  a  few  of  his  many  references  to 
him  in  later  days : 


PREACHER  AND  PROFESSOR     57 

The  Elector  Frederick  was  a  wise,  judicious,  capable, 
and  skilful  ruler,  who  hated  all  display,  hypocrisy,  and 
sham.  He  led  a  pure  life  and  never  married.  .  .  .  Such 
a  pious,  God-fearing,  prudent  prince  is  a  great  gift  from 
God.  He  was  a  real  father  to  the  fatherland,  he  ruled 
well,  and  kept  both  cellar  and  garret  full.  He  held  his 
officials  and  servants  to  a  strict  account.  When  he  visited 
one  of  his  own  castles,  he  paid  for  his  food  and  lodging, 
like  any  other  guest,  that  the  stewards  might  not  after- 
ward put  in  exorbitant  bills  for  his  entertainment.  Thus 
it  came  about  that  he  left  his  land  large  treasures  and 
supplies.  .  .  .  He  gathered  in  with  shovels  and  gave  out 
with  spoons.  .  .  .  He  had  the  custom  of  allowing  his 
counselors  to  express  their  opinions  and  then  doing  the 
exact  opposite,  yet  with  such  reason  that  they  could  say 
nothing.  This  he  did  not  learn,  nor  was  he  trained  to  it, 
but  he  had  the  gift  naturally,  and  although  many  tried  to 
influence  and  control  him,  he  put  out  his  horns  and  would 
have  none  of  it.  Often  when  his  counselors  gave  him 
advice  which  seemed  good,  he  yet  pbstinately  refused  to 
take  it.  Why  he  did  so,  only  himself  knew;  but  it  was 
surely  at  God's  suggestion,  for  he  was  born  one  of  God's 
miracles. 


Despite  Luther's  admiration  for  his  prince,  he  did 
not  hesitate  to  express  himself  frankly  about  him  or 
to  him.  In  the  year  1516,  in  a  letter  to  Spalatin,  he 
remarked : 

Many  things  please  your  prince  and  glitter  in  his  eyes 
which  displease  God  and  are  held  of  no  account  by  Him. 
I  do  not  deny  he  is  exceedingly  wise  in  secular  affairs, 
but  in  those  pertaining  to  God  and  the  soul's  salvation  I 
consider  him,  as  well  as  Pf effinger,  sevenfold  blind.  I  do 
not  say  this  in  a  corner  to  malign  them,  nor  do  I  wish  you 
to  keep  it  quiet.  I  am  prepared  whenever  opportunity 
occurs  to  say  it  to  their  faces. 


58  MARTIN  LUTHER 

The  following  letter  to  Frederick  himself,  written 
something  over  a  year  later,  is  characteristically  di- 
rect and  outspoken : 

My  most  gracious  and  dear  lord,  Duke  Frederick,  Elec- 
tor of  Saxony ;  most  gracious  lord  and  prince.  As  your 
grace  promised  me  some  time  ago,  through  Hirsfelder,  a 
new  gown,  I  now  wish  to  remind  your  grace  of  it.  But  I 
beg,  gracious  lord,  as  before,  that  if  Pfeffinger  is  to  ar- 
range the  matter,  he  will  do  it  in  reality  and  not  with  fine 
speeches  merely,  for  he  can  spin  good  words,  but  they  do 
not  make  good  cloth. 

It  has  also  been  told  me,  gracious  lord,  by  the  prior  at 
Erfurt,  who  had  it  from  your  grace's  confessor,  that  your 
grace  is  displeased  with  Dr.  Staupitz,  our  dear  and 
worthy  father,  because  of  something  he  has  written. 
When  he  was  here  and  visited  your  grace  at  Torgau,  I 
spoke  about  it  to  him  and  expressed  my  regret  at  your 
displeasure,  and  although  we  talked  at  length  about  your 
grace  I  could  not  discover  that  he  thought  of  your  grace 
in  any  but  the  most  affectionate  fashion.  He  remarked 
finally,  "I  do  not  believe  I  have  ever  done  anything  to 
displease  my  most  gracious  lord  except  to  love  him  too 
much."  Therefore  I  beg  you,  gracious  lord,  in  his  behalf 
and  partly  at  his  suggestion,  that  you  will  count  on  his 
good  will  and  faithfulness  as  in  the  past. 

Also,  gracious  prince,  that  I  may  show  my  loyalty  to 
your  grace  and  earn  my  court  dress,  I  have  heard  that 
your  grace,  after  the  collection  of  the  present  tax,  intends 
to  levy  another  and  perhaps  heavier  one.  If  your  grace 
will  not  despise  a  poor  beggar's  prayer,  I  entreat  that 
this,  for  God's  sake,  may  not  be  done  ;  for  I  and  many 
who  love  your  grace  are  deeply  distressed  because  the 
present  tax  has  robbed  your  grace's  last  days  of  so  much 
good  fame  and  affection.  God  has  endowed  your  grace 
with  large  wisdom,  so  that  you  see  further  in  these 
matters  than  I,  and  perhaps  any  of  your  grace's  subjects, 
but  it  may  well  be— so  indeed  God  wills  it— that  great 


From  an  old  prii 


CHRISTOPHER    SCHEURL,    THE 
JURIST 


PREACHER  AND  PROFESSOR  59 

wisdom  sometimes  learns  from  less  in  order  that  no  one 
may  depend  on  himself,  but  on  God  our  Lord  alone. 
May  He  preserve  your  grace  in  health  for  our  good,  and 
afterward  give  your  grace  eternal  salvation.  Amen. 
Your  grace's  obedient  chaplain,  Dr.  Martin  Luther  of 
Wittenberg. 


During  all  these  years,  despite  multiplying  duties 
and  distractions,  Luther's  chief  work,  and  most  ab- 
sorbing interest,  was  his  university  teaching.  The 
chair  he  was  appointed  to  in  succession  to  Staupitz 
was  a  biblical  chair.  There  were  three  regular  foun- 
dations in  the  theological  faculty,  devoted  to  instruc- 
tion respectively  in  Thomas  Aquinas,  in  Gabriel  Biel, 
and  in  the  Bible.  The  last  was  undoubtedly  due  to 
Staupitz  himself,  and  its  establishment  was  very 
timely,  in  view  of  the  growing  interest  of  the  age  in 
biblical  study.  It  was  thus  not  on  his  own  initiative 
that  Luther  took  the  Bible  instead  of  the  theology  of 
the  schoolmen  as  the  subject  of  his  teaching,  though 
his  taste  and  training  made  the  work  peculiarly  con- 
genial. As  a  rule,  professors  of  theology  preferred  to 
give  themselves  to  dogmatics  and  considered  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Bible  rather  the  work  of  beginners.  But 
Luther's  interest  was  identical  with  that  of  his  emi- 
nent predecessor,  as  Staupitz  well  knew  when  he  de- 
cided upon  him  as  his  successor. 

The  new  incumbent  interpreted  the  duties  of  his 
chair  strictly,  and  to  the  end  of  his  life  lectured  upon 
the  Bible  alone.  At  first  he  contented  himself  with 
expounding  the  text  of  the  Vulgate,  the  traditional 
Latin  version  of  the  Catholic  church,  but  he  soon  felt 
the  need  of  going  back  to  the  original  tongues,  realiz- 
ing, as  he  said,  that  "the  farther  from  the  spring,  the 
more  water  loses  taste  and  strength,"  and  he  therefore 


60  MARTIN  LUTHER 

took  up  the  study  of  both  Hebrew  and  Greek  with  his 
friend  Lang,  who  had  long  been  an  enthusiastic  human- 
ist and  an  accomplished  linguist.  Though  Luther 
never  became  a  great  expert  in  either  language,  he  read 
both  easily,  and  made  large  use  of  them  in  his  biblical 
work.  The  energy  of  the  man  in  thus  acquiring  two 
new  languages  while  in  the  midst  of  the  active  work  of 
teaching  and  preaching  was  genuinely  characteristic. 

Erasmus's  famous  edition  of  the  Greek  New  Testa- 
ment appeared  in  1516.  Luther  was  lecturing  at  the 
time  upon  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Romans  and  he  showed 
his  conscientiousness  and  his  desire  to  be  fully  up  to 
date  in  his  work  by  immediately  making  the  new  Greek 
text  the  basis  of  his  comments  in  the  class-room.  He 
was  always  alive,  indeed,  to  the  progress  of  scholarship 
in  his  chosen  field. 

In  his  methods  of  teaching  he  was  original  and  un- 
conventional in  the  extreme.  He  was  continually  re- 
ferring to  the  events  of  the  day  and  viewing  them  in 
the  light  of  the  particular  writer  he  was  interpreting. 
He  drew  largely  upon  the  every-day  experiences  of  his 
students  for  illustrative  material,  and  even  made  con- 
siderable use  of  their  vernacular  speech.  Latin  was 
the  regular  language  of  the  class-room,  but  he  did  not 
hesitate,  unacademic  as  it  was,  to  introduce  German 
words  and  phrases  whenever  he  could  thus  make  the 
Bible  text  more  vivid  and  expressive,  much  as  one 
might  indulge  in  colloquialisms  or  slang  to-day.  Of 
course  he  was  criticized.  At  the  same  time,  his  work 
took  on  a  reality  and  an  interest  elsewhere  quite  un- 
known, and  his  reputation  as  a  teacher  grew  apace. 

His  instruction  was  by  no  means  scientific  in  char- 
acter. The  Bible  was  a  practical  book  to  him,  and 
in  his  interpretation  it  was  always  its  practical  value 
upon  which  he  laid  chief  stress.  Often  he  was  as 


PREACHER  AND  PROFESSOR  61 

much  interested  in  making  it  religiously  valuable  to 
his  students  as  in  getting  at  its  original  meaning. 
He  treated  the  Old  Testament  in  the  most  unhistorical 
fashion,  finding  types  and  prophecies  of  Christ  in  every 
part  of  it;  and  into  the  most  unlikely  passages  both  of 
Old  Testament  and  New  he  read  his  gospel  of  the 
forgiving  love  of  God  revealed  in  Christ.  But  the 
very  fact  that  he  interpreted  the  whole  Bible  from  a 
single  point  of  view,  together  with  his  enthusiasm,  his 
skill  in  rendering  the  text  into  the  vernacular,  and  the 
novelty  of  his  methods,  made  a  tremendous  impression. 
He  soon  became  the  most  popular  teacher  in  the  uni- 
versity, and  gained  an  ever  larger  following  among 
the  students.  Here,  they  felt,  was  a  real  man,  who  in- 
sisted on  going  to  the  heart  of  things,  and  was  bound 
by  no  narrow  conventions  and  traditional  sophistries. 
Even  his  colleagues  came  frequently  to  hear  him,  and 
the  famous  scholar,  Dr.  Martin  Pollich,  predicted  he 
would  yet  completely  revolutionize  the  teaching  of 
theology. 

To  do  this,  indeed,  soon  became  his  chief  ambition. 
More  and  more  as  time  passed  he  grew  impatient  with 
the  prevailing  scholastic  methods  and  with  the  school- 
men themselves,  to  whom  they  were  due.  Theology, 
he  believed,  ought  to  be  vital  and  practical  instead  of 
philosophical  and  speculative,  as  they  had  made  it.  He 
had  no  quarrel  as  yet  with  their  doctrines,-— he  was 
orthodox,  as  they,  too,  were,— but  their  spirit  was  not 
his.  His  exclusively  practical  interest  in  theology  was 
typical  of  his  general  attitude.  Speculation  as  such, 
science  as  an  end  in  itself,  truth  for  truth's  sake,  never 
appealed  to  him ;  only  matters  immediately  bearing  on 
life  and  character  he  felt  to  be  worthy  the  attention  of 
a  serious  man. 

His  knowledge  of  the  greatest  schoolmen,  Thomas 


62  MARTIN  LUTHER 

Aquinas,  Bonaventura,  and  the  like,  was  very  limited 
and  he  was  never  altogether  just  to  them.  He  viewed 
scholasticism  too  exclusively  in  the  light  of  its  later 
exponents,  such  as  William  of  Occam  and  Gabriel  Biel. 
For  Aquinas,  had  he  known  him  well,  he  would  have 
felt  less  antipathy  than  for  the  latter.  The  "Angelic 
Doctor"  was  much  more  of  an  Augustinian  than  they, 
while  at  the  same  time,  with  all  his  formalism  and  in- 
terest in  speculation,  he  was  a  good  deal  of  a  mystic 
and  made  communion  with  God  the  supreme  end  of 
theology.  But  Luther  read  him  only  through  the  eyes 
of  his  later  interpreters  and  so  included  him  in  the 
common  condemnation.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  even  had 
he  known  him  better  he  could  not  have  found  him 
permanently  congenial,  for  Thomas  was  a  philosophi- 
cal theologian,  and  read  Christianity  principally  in 
intellectual  terms,  while  Luther  was  exclusively  practi- 
cal. Moreover,  the  careful  balancing  of  opinions,  and 
the  drawing  of  fine  distinctions,  in  which  Thomas  as 
well  as  the  other  schoolmen  chiefly  delighted,  were  alto- 
gether foreign  to  his  impetuous  genius.  He  was  always 
more  preacher  than  scholar.  As  a  rule,  he  saw  only  one 
side  of  a  question,  and  he  instinctively  put  things  in 
extreme  and  paradoxical  fashion. 

The  presiding  genius  of  medieval  scholasticism  was 
Aristotle,  and  Luther's  growing  distaste  for  the  scho- 
lastic spirit  and  method  resulted  not  unnaturally  in  a 
growing  dislike  for  the  great  Stagirite.  His  formal 
logic  he  found  empty  and  barren,  and  the  matters 
of  chief  interest  to  the  inquiring  mind  of  the  Greek 
sage  he  cared  little  about,  while  for  the  questions  he 
thought  really  important  no  satisfactory  answers  were 
to  be  found  in  the  peripatetic  philosophy.  "Wilt  thou 
know  what  Aristotle  teaches?"  he  once  exclaimed.  "I 
will  tell  thee  frankly.  A  potter  can  make  a  pot  out 


UNIV.  of 

CALIFORNIA 


PREACHER  AND  PROFESSOR  63 

of  clay;  this  a  smith  cannot  do  unless.  h6  lias  learned    • 
how.     If  there  is  anything  higher  ifl*Ajistotte'^o»irofc«%:  : 
believe  a  word  I  say."     "In  the  universities,1'  fre  re-!  <:  ' 
marked  on  another  occasion,  "the  Bible  and  Christian 
faith  are  little  taught,  and  only  the  blind  heathen  Aris- 
totle reigns.     It  pains  me  greatly  that  the  damnable, 
proud,  cunning  heathen  has  led  astray  and  fooled  so 
many  of  the  best  Christians  with  his  false  words.    God 
has  plagued  us  with  him  because  of  our  sins." 

It  is  significant  of  his  controlling  interest  that  he 
ranked  Cicero  much  higher  than  Aristotle. 

Cicero  handled  the  finest  and  best  questions  in  philos- 
ophy :  Whether  there  be  a  God  ?  What  God  is  ?  Whether 
He  takes  an  interest  in  human  affairs  ?  And  he  holds  that 
there  must  be  an  eternal  Spirit.  Aristotle  was  a  skilful 
and  cunning  dialectician,  who  followed  the  right  method 
in  his  teaching;  but  the  facts  and  their  meaning  he  did 
not  elucidate,  as  Cicero  did.  He  who  would  learn  the  true 
philosophy  should  read  Cicero. 

He  was  particularly  pleased  with  Cicero's  arguments 
for  the  existence  of  God,  while  Aristotle's  disbelief 
in  divine  creation  and  providence,  and  in  the  immortal- 
ity 01  the  soul,  made  him,  as  he  thought,  quite  unfit 
to  be  a  teacher  of  Christians.  At  this  time  Luther 
measured  every  writer  by  the  standard  of  Christian 
orthodoxy,  and,  estimated  thus,  Aristotle  could  hardly 
seem  other  than  a  blasphemer.  The  detached  and 
scientific  attitude  of  the  schoolmen,  enabling  them  to 
use  the  Aristotelian  philosophy  without  being  troubled 
with  the  religious  beliefs  of  its  author,  was  not  his. 
His  practical  interest  made  such  a  frame  of  mind  quite 
impossible. 

He  was  by  no  means  the  first  to  attack  Aristotle  and 
the  schoolmen.  The  revolt  against  traditional  methods 


64  MARTIN  LUTHER 

had  begun  long  before  his  day  and  was  steadily  gaining 
strength,  particularly  where  the  influence  of  the  new 
humanism  was  felt.  But  his  opposition  was  exclus- 
ively religious  and  very  unlike  that  of  most  of  his 
contemporaries.  The  difference  is  seen  in  his  com- 
plaint that  the  schoolmen,  following  their  master  Aris- 
totle, made  too  much  of  human  reason,  while  one  of 
their  chief  faults  in  the  eyes  of  the  humanists  was  the 
irrationality  and  antiquated  nature  of  their  teaching. 
The  difference  is  seen  also  in  his  condemnation  of  the 
naturalism  of  the  pagan  philosopher.  Because  Aris- 
totle emphasized  human  ability  and  free  will  instead  of 
man's  impotence  and  constant  need  of  divine  grace, 
his  moral  teaching,  Luther  thought,  was  peculiarly 
dangerous  and  was  the  worst  of  his  many  sins.  That 
the  reformer  thus  reached  by  his  own  independent  path 
a  position  very  common  in  his  day  was  characteristic 
of  him.  Over  and  over  again  the  same  thing  hap- 
pened, and  in  it  lies  one-  of  the  secrets  of  the  tremen- 
dous influence  he  wielded. 

In  February,  1517,  he  sent  his  friend  Lang  a  paper 
full,  as  he  said,  of  blasphemies  and  curses  against 
Aristotle,  Porphyry,  and  the  dogmatic  theologians, 
asking  him  to  show  it  to  his  old  teacher  Trutvettei'  and 
others.  He  realized  the  radical  character  of  his  atti- 
tude. That  it  would  excite  criticism  he  was  we1! 
aware,  and  both  now  and  later,  as  his  letters  show,  hey, 
was  almost  boyishly  eager  to  know  what  his  friends 
would  say.  In  May  he  wrote  Lang,  "Our  theology  and 
that  of  St.  Augustine,  by  the  grace  of  God,  are  making 
excellent  progress  and  gaining  control  in  our  univer- 
sity. Aristotle  is  gradually  declining,  and  his  per- 
manent extinction  is  not  far  off."  This  was  no  idle 
boast.  He  was  actually  winning  over  to  his  own  point 
of  view  one  colleague  after  another,  and  his  influence 


From  the  original  painting  in  the  Uffizi  Gallery,  Florence 
LUCAS    CRANACH,    PAINTED    BY    HIMSELF 


PREACHER  AND  PROFESSOR  65 

in  the  Wittenberg  faculty  was  daily  increasing.  Even 
beyond  Wittenberg,  too,  his  ideas  were  gaining 
ground.  Under  his  direction,  in  September,  1517,  a 
number  of  theses  denouncing  Aristotle's  influence  in 
theology  were  defended  by  one  of  his  pupils  in  a  dis- 
putation for  the  master's  degree.  Upon  reading  them 
Christopher  Scheurl,  then  residing  in  Nuremberg, 
wrote  that  a  great  change  in  theological  studies  was 
in  prospect,  and  soon  it  would  be  possible  to  become  a 
theologian  without  either  Aristotle  or  Plato.  In  this 
he  was  only  giving  voice  to  an  opinion  shared  by  many 
of  his  acquaintances,  whose  admiration  for  the  young 
Wittenberg  professor  was  steadily  growing. 

In  some  places,  on  the  other  hand,  Luther  was  ac- 
quiring a  bad  name  for  himself,  and  especially  with  his 
old  teachers  at  Erfurt  his  reputation  was  not  improv- 
ing. They  not  unnaturally  thought  him  over-proud, 
self -conceited,  and  presumptuous,  and  were  incensed  to 
see  him  emancipating  himself  more  and  more  from  the 
traditions  in  which  he  had  been  trained  and  from  the 
authorities  whom  he  had  been  taught  to  reverence. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    AWAKENING    REFORMER 

TUTHER'S  interest  in  the  reformation  of  theolog- 
J_^  ical  study  did  not  prevent  him  from  concerning 
himself  with  many  other  matters  needing  betterment. 
As  time  passed,  his  eyes  were  increasingly  opened  to 
existing  evils  in  one  and  another  sphere,  and  wherever 
he  found  them,  he  was  quick  to  attack  them.  He  had 
the  true  reformer's  conscience— the  sense  of  responsi- 
bility for  others  as  well  as  for  himself,  and  the  true 
reformer's  vision  of  the  better  things  that  ought  to  be. 
He  was  never  a  mere  faultfinder,  but  he  was  endowed 
with  the  gifts  of  imagination  and  sympathy,  leading 
him  to  feel  himself  a  part  of  every  situation  he  was 
placed  in,  and  with  the  irrepressible  impulse  to  action 
driving  him  to  take  upon  himself  the  burden  of  it. 
In  any  crowd  of  bystanders  he  would  have  been  first 
to  go  to  the  rescue  where  need  was,  and  quickest  to  see 
the  need  not  obvious  to  all.  The  aloofness  of  the  mere 
observer  was  not  his;  he  was  too  completely  one  with 
all  he  saw  to  stand  apart  and  let  it  go  its  way  alone. 
Fearful  and  distrustful  of  himself  he  long  was,  but 
his  timidity  was  only  the  natural  shrinking  before  new 
and  untried  duties  of  a  soul  that  saw  more  clearly  and 
felt  more  keenly  than  most.  The  imperative  demands 
inevitably  made  upon  him  by  every  situation  led  him 
instinctively  to  dread  putting  himself  where  he  could 
not  help  responding  to  the  call  of  unfamiliar  tasks; 

66 


THE  AWAKENING  REFORMER  67 

but  once  there,  the  summons  was  irresistible,  and  he 
threw  himself  into  the  new  responsibilities  with  a  for- 
get fulness  of  self  possible  only  to  him  who  has  denied 
its  claims,  and  with  a  fearlessness  possible  only  to  him 
who  has  conquered  fear.  He  might  interpret  his  con- 
fidence as  trust  in  God,  won  by  the  path  of  a  complete 
contempt  of  his  own  powers;  but  however  understood, 
it  gave  him  an  independence  and  a  disregard  of  con- 
sequences which  made  his  conscience  and  his  vision 
effective  for  reform. 

As  a  preacher  in  the  Wittenberg  church  he  soon 
abandoned  the  all-too-common  custom  of  delivering 
mere  essays  on  speculative  theology,  and  turned  his 
attention  to  questions  of  immediate  practical  concern. 
The  moral  conditions  of  university  life,  and  particu- 
larly the  relations  between  the  students  and  the  young 
women  of  the  town,  left  much  to  be  desired.  The  citi- 
zens had  not  yet  adjusted  themselves  to  the  new  situa- 
tion arising  from  the  presence  of  hundreds  of  young 
and  often  unruly  fellows  in  the  quiet  little  city,  and 
they  found  themselves  helpless  before  the  growing 
demoralization.  Luther  soon  became  familiar  with 
existing  conditions,  and  began  to  speak  his  mind  about 
them  in  no  uncertain  terms.  He  denounced  parents 
for  the  laxity  of  their  discipline,  and  called  upon  the 
university  and  city  authorities  to  take  the  matter  ac- 
tively in  hand.  He  brought  down  upon  himself  the 
enmity  of  many,  both  for  his  plain  speaking  and  his 
fancied  invasion  of  the  sacred  liberties  of  university 
life;  but  he  succeeded  in  bringing  about  a  great  im- 
provement and  won  the  lasting  gratitude  and  confi- 
dence of  the  better  citizens.  Before  long  he  was  the 
most  powerful  influence  for  righteousness  in  town  and 
university,  as  he  continued  to  be  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

But  he  did  not  confine  himself  to  conditions  in  Wit- 


68  MARTIN  LUTHER 

tenberg.  In  the  spring  of  1515  he  was  appointed  to 
preach  at  the  triennial  convention  of  his  order,  meeting 
in  Gotha,  and  instead  of  choosing  some  theological  or 
philosophical  theme  appropriate  to  the  occasion,  which 
might  give  him  opportunity  to  display  his  ability  and 
learning,  as  most  young  men  would  have  done,  he 
preached  a  simple  but  effective  sermon  on  the  vice  of 
slander,  sadly  prevalent  in  monasticism,  as  he  knew 
from  his  own  experience.  His  wealth  of  imagery,  his 
command  of  epigram,  and  his  power  of  invective,  ap- 
pear very  strikingly  in  this  discourse,  as  also  his  pen- 
chant for  homely  and  coarse  figures,  but  the  most 
notable  thing  about  it  is  the  practical  interest  dictating 
both  selection  of  subject  and  mode  of  treatment,  and 
his  fearlessness  in  handling  the  conditions  attacked. 
The  sermon  attracted  wide  attention  and  gained  the 
favorable  notice  of  one  of  the  leading  humanists  of  the 
day,  the  celebrated  Rufus  Mutianus  of  Gotha.  It  evi- 
dently made  a  strong  impression  also  on  many  of  the 
assembled  monks,  for  it  was  at  this  convention  Luther 
was  appointed  district-vicar. 

It  was  characteristic  of  his  type  of  mind  that  he 
was  not  only  alive  to  the  shortcomings  of  his  own  class, 
but  was  glad  to  have  them  exposed  by  anybody.  Eras- 
mus's frequent  attacks  upon  the  vices  and  follies  of 
monks  and  priests  struck  a  responsive  chord  in  his 
heart,  and  were  read  with  no  little  pleasure.  He  was 
not  of  those  who  see  only  good  in  the  party  to  which 
they  belong,  and  defend  it  against  all  comers.  On  the 
contrary,  he  welcomed  the  freest  criticism  both  from 
within  and  from  without  as  salutary  and  helpful,  and 
did  not  hesitate  to  publish  to  the  whole  world  his 
own  strictures  upon  conditions  prevailing  within  the 
circles  he  knew  best.  Such  a  man  was  bound  to  find 
fresh  food  for  criticism  with  every  passing  year,  and 


THE  AWAKENING  REFORMER  69 

was  sure  ultimately  to  become  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  all 
thick-and-thin  supporters  of  the  existing  order. 

Meanwhile  his  thought  was  beginning  to  dwell  upon 
the  condition  of  the  church  at  large  and  upon  evils 
everywhere  all  too  common.  In  an  interesting  letter 
written  in  reply  to  an  inquiry  from  Spalatin  as  to  his 
opinion  of  the  merits  of  the  famous  Reuchlin  con- 
troversy, which  had  been  started  by  the  Dominicans 
of  Cologne,  the  great  heresy-hunters  of  the  day,  he 
wrote : 

My  brother  John  Lang  has  asked  in  your  name  what  I 
think  of  the  cause  of  the  innocent  and  most  learned  John 
Reuchlin  against  his  Cologne  rivals,  and  whether  he  is 
guilty  of  heresy.  You  know  I  have  a  great  esteem  and 
affection  for  the  man,  and  my  judgment  is  liable  to  sus- 
picion because,  as  we  say,  I  am  not  free  and  neutral. 
Nevertheless,  as  you  ask  me,  I  will  say  what  I  think,  that 
there  is  nothing  dangerous  in  what  he  has  written.  I 
wonder  greatly  at  his  opponents,  because  they  involve  so 
plain  an  affair  in  difficulties  worse  than  a  Gordian  knot, 
when  he  protests  solemnly  and  repeatedly  that  he  is' not 
setting  up  articles  of  faith,  but  simply  expressing  his 
judgment.  These  two  things  absolve  him  in  my  opinion 
so  completely  from  suspicion  that  even  if  he  had  made  a 
collection  of  all  heresies  in  his  report,  I  should  hold  him 
sound  and  pure  in  the  faith.  For  if  such  expressions  of 
opinion  are  not  free  from  danger,  it  is  to  be  feared  these 
inquisitors  will  begin  to  swallow  camels  and  strain  out 
gnats,  and  will  pronounce  the  orthodox  heretics,  whatever 
they  say.  What  is  it  they  are  doing  but  trying  to  cast  out 
Beelzebub  without  the  ringer  of  God?  It  is  this  I  often 
mourn  and  lament,  that  we  Christians  are  wise  abroad 
and  foolish  at  home.  There  are  a  hundred  worse  evils  in 
all  the  streets  of  Jerusalem,  and  every  place  is  full  of 
spiritual  idols.  These  intestine  foes  ought  to  be  opposed 
with  all  our  might,  but  we  leave  them  alone  and  concern 


70  MARTIN  LUTHER 

ourselves  with  foreign  matters.  It  is  certainly  the  devil 
who  persuades  us  to  neglect  our  own  affairs  for  others 
which  we  cannot  mend.  I  protest,  is  it  possible  to  think 
of  anything  more  foolish  ?  Are  there  not  enough  terrible 
evils  on  which  these  unhappy  men  of  Cologne  may  exer- 
cise their  wisdom,  zeal,  and  charity,  that  they  find  it  nec- 
essary to  start  an  inquiry  about  matters  so  remote  ? 

The  letter  is  instructive  both  for  its  outspoken  de- 
fense of  the  famous  humanist  and  Hebraist  at  a  time 
when  many  liberals,  for  fear  of  consequences,  hesitated 
to  express  an  opinion,  and  also  for  the  concern  it  shows 
for  the  moral  and  religious  condition  of  Christendom. 

In  1515  there  appeared  the  first  instalment  of  the 
famous  "Letters  of  Obscure  Men,"  one  of  the  cleverest 
and  most  amusing  satires  of  the  age.  They  were  pub- 
lished anonymously,  but  the  principal  author  is  now 
known  to  have  been  an  Erfurt  humanist  and  former 
student  friend  of  Luther's,  Crotus  Rubianus.  They 
exposed  the  ignorance  and  obscurantism  of  Reuchlin's 
enemies  in  most  merciless  and  telling  fashion  and 
brought  upon  them  wide-spread  contempt.  While 
Luther  deprecated  the  flippant  tone  of  the  work,  he 
sympathized  with  the  author's  purpose,  for  he  felt  as 
impatient  as  any  liberal  with  the  reactionary  attitude 
of  Reuchlin's  scholastic  opponents  and  was  as  eager 
to  see  them  overthrown. 

His  lectures  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  delivered 
in  1515-1516  and  only  recently  recovered,  abound  in 
dark  pictures  of  the  state  of  the  church  at  large.  Priests 
and  laymen,  higher  and  lower  ecclesiastics,  secular  and 
monastic  clergy,  the  extortions  of  the  Roman  curia  and 
the  morals  of  the  capital  of  Christendom,  all  come  in 
for  severe  denunciation  in  phraseology  typically  vigor- 
ous and  paradoxical. 

In  1516,  learning  that  the  elector  was  thinking  of 


THE  AWAKENING  REFORMER  71 

having  Staupitz  made  a  bishop,  he  wrote  Spalatin 
urging  him  to  use  his  influence  against  the  plan,  on  the 
ground  that  the  vicar-general  was  much  too  good  for 
the  position : 

Those  happy  times  are  gone  by  when  it  was  a  fortunate 
thing  to  be  a  bishop.  Now  there  is  no  more  miserable 
place,  with  its  reveling  and  carousing  after  the  manner 
of  Sodom  and  Rome.  You  see  this  well  enough  when 
you  compare  the  life  and  work  of  the  old  bishops  with 
those  of  our  day.  The  best  of  them  are  immersed  in  pub- 
lic wars,  while  their  homes  have  become  a  very  hell  of 
insatiable  greed. 

The  language  is  characteristically  exaggerated, 
though  it  could  be  matched  over  and  over  again  in  the 
writings  of  the  day.  Such  a  judgment  of  contempo- 
rary prelates  was  altogether  too  sweeping  and  severe; 
but,  like  his  lectures  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  it 
shows  the  awakening  spirit  of  the  reformer,  and  con- 
trasts most  strikingly  with  the  simple  and  devout  faith 
of  the  Roman  pilgrim.  The  traveling  he  was  doing  as 
district-vicar,  and  the  responsibility  the  position  laid 
upon  him  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  others,  were 
opening  his  eyes  as  the  Italian  journey  had  not  done, 
and  he  was  becoming  aware  of  evils  to  which  he  had 
hitherto  been  quite  blind. 

The  same  year  he  preached  in  the  Wittenberg  church 
a  series  of  sermons  on  the  Decalogue,  taking  occasion 
to  attack  in  no  uncertain  terms  many  prevalent  super- 
stitions. Astrology,  witchcraft,  saint-worship,  reli- 
gious pilgrimages,  and  the  popular  beliefs  current  in 
every  age  concerning  lucky  and  unlucky  days,  omens, 
signs,  and  charms,  were  considered  in  great  detail  and 
with  an  extraordinary  wealth  of  illustration,  furnish- 
ing us  much  interesting  information  about  the  popular 


72  MARTIN  LUTHER 

beliefs  of  the  time.  Astrology  he  makes  merry  sport 
over,  his  lack  of  faith  in  it  contrasting  favorably  with 
the  credulity  of  many  of  the  leading  men  of  his  day. 
"My  dear  Astrology/'  he  calls  it,  "which  would  gladly 
be  an  art  if  its  inborn  folly  did  not  prevent  it."  The 
existence  of  witches  he  could  not  doubt, — nobody  did 
then, — and  he  was  in  favor  of  punishing  them  without 
mercy  and  even  burning  them  at  the  stake;  but  he 
spoke  disapprovingly  of  the  excesses  to  which  the  be- 
lief in  witchcraft  was  carried,  and  tried  to  distinguish 
between  genuine  and  spurious  manifestations. 

His  attitude  toward  saint-worship  is  especially  in- 
structive. He  did  not  condemn  the  practice,— he  was 
a  loyal  son  of  the  church  and  recognized  its  legitimacy 
and  value, — but  he  complained  that  it  had  degenerated 
into  a  mere  selfish  scramble  after  temporal  goods, 
while  the  true  adoration  of  the  saints,  consisting  in 
imitating  their  perfections  and  praising  God  for  His 
gifts  to  them,  was  almost  wholly  forgotten.  "We 
honor  them,"  he  exclaimed,  "and  call  upon  them  only 
when  we  have  a  pain  in  our  legs  or  our  head,  or  when 
our  pockets  are  empty."  One  saint,  he  went  on  to  say, 
was  invoked  for  protection  against  fire,  another  against 
pestilence,  another  against  thunder-storms,  another 
against  this  or  that  illness— blindness,  toothache,  and 
the  like.  Each  trade  and  occupation  had  its  patron 
saint,  and  in  looking  to  them  for  wealth  or  fortune  all 
thought  of  higher  things  had  been  abandoned. 

He  was  obliged  to  recognize  that  the  church  ap- 
proved the  practice  of  appealing  to  the  saints  for  help 
in  bodily  distresses  and  temporal  need,  but  she  pre- 
served the  proper  order,  he  declared,  for  she  prayed 
first  for  grace  and  forgiveness  of  sins,  and  what  he 
condemned  was  not  the  desire  for  earthly  goods,  but 
the  putting  them  before  everything  else.  The  common 


THE  AWAKENING  REFORMER  73 

abuse  had  gone  so  far,  he  believed,  that  it  would  be 
better  if  the  festivals  of  the  saints  were  altogether 
abandoned  and  their  very  names  forgotten. 

The  custom  of  making  religious  pilgrimages  he  also 
criticized  sharply.  Its  rapid  growth  during  recent 
years,  one  of  the  characteristic  phenomena  of  the 
age,  he  attributed  to  the  devil.  It  had  resulted,  he 
complained,  in  the  wide-spread  neglect  of  household 
duties  and  of  the  ordinary  means  of  grace,  and  had 
brought  demoralization  into  many  homes  and  com- 
munities. "If  you  have  a  wife  or  servants,"  he  re- 
marked, "who  claim  they  are  driven  by  the  Spirit 
to  go  upon  a  pilgrimage,  hear  my  advice :  take  a  good 
oaken  cross  and  sanctify  them  with  a  few  lusty  strokes 
on  the  back,  and  you  will  see  how  the  devil  is  exorcised 
by  this  finger  of  God."  To  be  sure,  he  did  not  wish  to 
oppose  a  time-honored  practice  approved  by  the  church. 
"Let  any  one  go  on  a  pilgrimage  who  feels  compelled 
to,  but  let  him  learn  that  God  can  be  served  at  home  a 
thousand  times  better  by  giving  the  money  the  journey 
would  cost  to  the  poor,  or  to  wife  and  children,  and 
bearing  one's  cross  with  patience." 

Luther  was  not  the  first  to  attack  these  and  similar 
practices.  Within  a  few  years  many  voices  had  been 
raised  in  like  criticism  or  condemnation,  and  some  of 
the  things  he  said  were  only  reflections  of  their  writ- 
ings. But  his  utterances  were  none  the  less  significant 
of  his  own  development.  He  was  not  simply  imitating 
others — this  he  never  did.  He  was  being  taught  by 
his  own  experience  and  observation,  as  well  as  by  his 
reading,  and  that  he  was  coming  to  conclusions  already 
reached  by  others  meant  all  the  more  for  his  future 
influence. 

For  the  abuses  and  excesses  he  was  denouncing  he 
held  the  clergy  responsible.  He  had  begun  by  criti- 


74  MARTIN  LUTHER 

cizing  his  fellow-monks.  Under  the  influence  of  a 
growing  recognition  of  the  evils  of  the  world  outside 
the  monasteries  he  soon  went  on  to  condemn  the  clergy 
at  large.  Because  they  had  not  done  their  duty  in 
preaching  the  true  Gospel  of  Christ  superstition  had 
spread  widely,  and  true  faith  in  God  and  dependence 
upon  Him  were  all  too  little  known.  Evidently  while 
the  reforming  spirit  was  growing  in  him  he  was  gain- 
ing increasing  clearness  as  to  the  remedy  needed,  and 
the  restraint  imposed  by  his  inborn  respect  for  existing 
authorities  was  proving  less  and  less  of  a  hindrance. 

Though  he  was  not  yet  as  widely  known  in  the 
learned  world  as  Carlstadt  and  some  other  colleagues, 
his  official  position  as  district-vicar  of  the  Augus- 
tinian  order,  and  his  local  fame  as  the  most  popular 
professor  in  the  university,  gave  his  opinions  consider- 
able weight,  and  many  were  listening  with  interest  to 
what  he  had  to  say.  In  Wittenberg  itself  his  standing 
was  so  high  he  could  say  and  do  what  he  pleased  with- 
out forfeiting  the  respect  and  affection  of  town  and 
university;  but  there  were  some  even  there  who 
thought  him  too  censorious,  and  others  who  shook 
their  heads  over  his  utterances  and  feared  he  was  be- 
coming heretical,  while  in  places  less  devoted  to  him 
he  was  beginning  to  be  looked  upon  with  suspicion  and 
dislike  as  a  dangerous  radical. 

At  the  same  time,  in  all  he  was  doing  he  was  in  no 
way  transgressing  the  limits  of  orthodoxy  or  putting 
himself  out  of  harmony  with  the  church.  He  was  only 
attacking  practical  abuses,  as  any  earnest  preacher 
might  have  done,  and  as  many  were  doing.  Anything 
like  heresy  or  schism  he  was  still  wholly  opposed  to. 
It  seemed  to  him  as  to  most  others  to  argue  only  pride 
and  self-confidence.  The  following  passage  from  a 
sermon  preached  in  the  summer  of  1516  throws  an 


THE  AWAKENING  REFORMER  75 

interesting  light  upon  his  attitude  at  the  time  and 
reveals  his  loyal  devotion  to  the  pope : 

Unless  Christ  had  given  all  his  power  to  a  man  there 
would  have  been  no  perfect  church,  because  no  order, 
since  whoever  wished  could  say  he  was  ordained  by  the 
Holy  Spirit.  Thus  the  heretics  did,  each  one  setting  up 
his  own  principle,  until  there  were  as  many  churches  as 
persons.  Christ  wishes  to  exercise  no  power  except 
through  the  man  to  whom  he  has  committed  it,  that  he 
may  gather  all  into  one.  This  power  he  has  so  strength- 
ened as  to  excite  against  it  all  the  forces  of  earth  and 
hell;  as  he  says,  "The  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail 
against  it,"  by  which  he  means,  they  will  fight  and  be 
stirred  up  but  will  not  conquer,  that  it  may  be  known  the 
power  is  of  God  and  not  of  man.  They  therefore  who 
renounce  this  unity  and  order  have  no  reason  to  pride 
themselves  on  great  illuminations  and  wonderful  works 
as  do  our  Picards  and  other  schismatics.  For  obedience 
is  better  than  the  sacrifices  of  fools  who  know  not  what 
evil  they  do. 

There  is  no  sign  that  he  was  passing  in  these  days 
through  a  mental  struggle  or  consciously  breaking  with 
his  past.  He  was  developing  steadily  and  naturally, 
assuming  each  task  as  it  was  laid  upon  him  and  ad- 
dressing himself  to  one  evil  after  another  as  he  became 
aware  of  them.  It  was  a  happy,  busy  time,  and  he  was 
growing  daily  in  power  and  in  the  consciousness  of 
power.  He  had  immured  himself  in  a  convent,  ex- 
pecting to  spend  his  whole  life  apart  from  the  world, 
but  he  had  become  instead  a  public  figure  who  was 
counting  for  something  far  beyond  his  cloister  and  the 
boundaries  of  his  order,  while  day  by  day  his  interests 
were  multiplying  and  his  horizon  was  widening. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  ATTACK   ON   INDULGENCES 

THE  pious  Elector  Frederick  the  Wise  was  an  in- 
defatigable relic-hunter,  and  his  castle  church  of 
All  Saints  contained  more  than  five  thousand  sacred 
objects  gathered  from  all  parts  of  Christendom.  There 
still  exists  a  catalogue  of  them,  illustrated  with  draw- 
ings by  the  famous  Wittenberg  painter  Lucas  Cranach. 
A  gruesome  collection  it  was,  for  the  most  part,— a  lock 
of  St.  Elizabeth's  hair,  a  portion  of  St.  Euphemia's 
head,  two  fingers  and  a  hand  of  the  Holy  Innocents,  a 
tooth  of  St.  Beatrice,  a  piece  of  St.  Juliana's  leg,  and 
the  like, — but  it  had  cost  a  large  amount  of  time  and 
money,  and  Frederick  was  as  proud  of  it  as  any  mod- 
ern art-collector  of  his  pictures  and  statuary.  The 
church  was  a  favorite  place  of  pilgrimage,  for  large 
indulgence  was  to  be  gained  from  the  sight  of  its  holy 
treasures  and  from  contributions  to  its  support.  On 
October  13,  1516,  the  eve  of  the  anniversary  of  its 
dedication,  Luther  preached  from  its  pulpit  on  the  sub- 
ject of  indulgences,  attacking  their  abuse  in  sharp 
terms,  to  the  great  annoyance  of  the  elector.  It  was  a 
characteristic  thing  to  do.  To  criticize  indulgences, 
even  in  the  most  guarded  fashion,  in  the  castle  church, 
on  the  day  of  all  days  when  its  stores  of  grace  were  dis- 
pensed in  largest  measure,  was  an  act  whose  boldness 
was  equaled  only  by  its  tactlessness.  It  is  not  strange 
the  elector  was  offended.  The  only  cause  of  wonder 

76 


THE  ATTACK  ON  INDULGENCES       77 

is  that  he  seems  not  to  have  laid  it  up  against  the 
preacher,  for  we  hear  of  his  annoyance  only  through 
a  casual  remark  of  Luther's  made  long  afterward,  and 
we  find  the  critic  preaching  again  upon  the  same  sub- 
ject from  the  same  pulpit  on  another  festival  in  Febru- 
ary, 1517. 

He  had  already  referred  to  the  matter  in  connection 
with  his  strictures  upon  pilgrimages,  complaining, 
with  the  exaggeration  all  too  characteristic  of  him : 
"When  it  is  evening  the  pilgrims  to  this  or  that 
shrine,  or  to  the  celebration  of  this  or  that  saint's 
day,  return  home  with  full  indulgence ;  that  is,  full  of 
beer  and  wine,  full  of  unchastity,  and  other  horrid 
vices."  Even  now  he  did  not  question  the  legitimacy 
of  indulgences,  but  he  attacked  the  abuses  to  which 
they  almost  inevitably  led  on  the  part  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical authorities  as  well  as  of  the  people.  Thus  he  said : 

Concerning  indulgences,  although  they  are  the  very 
merits  of  Christ  and  his  saints,  and  are  therefore  by  all 
means  to  be  received  with  reverence,  they  are  nevertheless 
made  the  most  shameful  agents  of  avarice.  For  who 
seeks  through  them  the  salvation  of  souls  and  not  rather 
the  contents  of  the  purse?  .  .  .  Indulgences  promote  a 
servile  righteousness,  for  they  do  nothing  but  teach  the 
people  to  fear,  to  flee,  to  shudder  at  the  punishment  of  sin 
instead  of  the  sin  itself,  when  they  ought  rather  to  be 
exhorted  to  love  punishment  and  to  embrace  the  cross. 
Would  that  I  lied  when  I  say  indulgences  are  rightly 
named,  because  to  indulge  is  to  permit,  and  indulgence  is 
impunity  and  permission  to  sin,  and  license  to  avoid  the 
cross  of  Christ. 

Liable  to  such  abuses  as  they  were,  in  that  age  they 
served  too  important  a  purpose  to  be  lightly  dispensed 
with,  for  upon  them  religion  depended  in  no  small 


78  MARTIN  LUTHER 


measure  for  support.  Without  them  the  erection  of 
many  a  church,  monastery,  and  hospital  would  have 
been  impossible,  and  the  permanent  endowments  of 
such  institutions  often  consisted  of  the  indulgence 
they  were  privileged  to  grant  the  pilgrims  to  their 
shrines  or  the  contributors  to  their  support. 

Severely  as  the  doctrine  has  been  denounced  by 
Protestant  theologians,  it  was  in  reality  only  the  recog- 
nition of  one  of  the  commonest  of  human  instincts— 
the  attempt  to  make  amends  for  questionable  conduct 
by  religious  practices.  This  is  not  confined  to  any  one 
communion,  but  in  the  Catholic  Church  it  is  most  en- 
couraged. One  of  the  striking  things  about  Cathol- 
icism, it  may  be  remarked  in  passing,  and  one  of  the 
secrets  of  its  age-long  hold  upon  a  large  portion  of  the 
race,  is  its  extraordinary  humanness,  the  way  it  recog- 
nizes and  makes  a  place  for  common  human  impulses, 
putting  even  the  least  worthy  of  them  to  some  use. 
Inevitably  pernicious  results  will  sometimes  follow, 
and  follow  they  did  in  the  wake  of  the  indulgence 
traffic  as  carried  on  in  the  later  Middle  Ages. 

That  traffic  was  based  ultimately  upon  the  Catholic 
penitential  system  which  is  as  old  as  the  second  cen- 
tury. According  to  ancient  and  modern  Catholic  be- 
lief forgiveness  for  sins  committed  after  baptism  can 
be  secured  only  through  the  sacrament  of  penance. 
This  requires  repentance,  confession  to  a  priest,  and 
the  performance  of  acts  involving  some  labor  or  sacri- 
fice on  the  part  of  the  penitent,  such  as  fasting,  alms- 
giving, or  going  upon  a  pilgrimage.  The  absolution 
pronounced  by  the  priest  in  the  confessional  insures 
release  from  guilt  and  eternal  punishment,  but  satis- 
faction must  still  be  rendered  in  the  form  of  works  of 
penance.  If  not  enough  of  these  are  done  before 
death  they  must  be  continued  in  purgatory  until  the 


. 


THE  ATTACK  ON  INDULGENCES       79 

debt  is  fully  discharged.  Only  then  is  the  penitent 
believer  prepared  to  enter  heaven.  In  the  early  Middle 
Ages  the  custom  grew  up  of  permitting  the  substitution 
of  some  other  form  of  penance  for  that  regularly  pre- 
scribed by  the  church.  This  permission  constituted 
what  later  came  to  be  called  an  indulgence.  Large  use 
was  made  of  it  in  connection  with  the  crusades,  when 
in  order  to  encourage  enlistment  in  the  crusading 
armies  pope  after  pope  assured  the  soldiers  of  the 
cross  that  their  service  would  be  accepted  in  full  dis- 
charge of  the  penance  otherwise  required  of  them. 
This  was  later  extended  to  those  who  equipped  and 
sent  substitutes  in  their  place,  or  in  other  ways  con- 
tributed to  the  support  of  the  crusading  forces. 

After  the  crusades  had  ceased,  granting  indulgences 
in  return  for  the  payment  of  money  was  continued  and 
the  funds  raised  were  employed  to  promote  all  sorts 
of  sacred  ends.  In  the  thirteenth  century  a  doctrinal 
basis  for  the  practice  was  found  by  one  of  the  great 
schoolmen.  The  church,  he  taught,  was  in  possession 
of  a  treasury  of  merits  composed  of  the  good  deeds  of 
Christ  and  His  saints,  upon  which  the  pope  could  draw 
for  the  advantage  of  penitents  meeting  any  conditions 
he  might  fix.  Later  the  benefit  of  indulgences  was 
extended  to  souls  in  purgatory,  and  the  privilege  of 
securing  their  release  from  its  pains  was  granted  to 
their  surviving  friends  and  relatives  upon  the  payment 
of  a  certain  sum. 

Theoretically  indulgences  affected  only  the  tem- 
poral satisfaction  required  of  the  penitent  either  here 
or  in  purgatory,  but  this  was  not  always  kept  clearly 
in  mind,  and  often  they  were  supposed  to  release  the 
purchaser  from  all  the  consequences  of  his  misdeeds,  a 
popular  misconception  sometimes  connived  at  by  the 
authorities. 


8o  MARTIN  LUTHER 

The  whole  indulgence  traffic,  particularly  as  it  ex- 
isted in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  was 
harmful  in  the  extreme.  There  was  the  constant 
temptation,  on  the  one  hand,  to  employ  it  to  raise  funds 
for  selfish  ends,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  substitute 
the  mere  payment  of  money  for  true  penitence  and 
amendment  of  life.  Both  temptations  were  frequently 
yielded  to,  and  the  result  was  wide-spread  and  growing 
demoralization. 

Looking  back  upon  that  period,  Catholics  of  to-day 
are  as  severe  as  Protestants  in  their  condemnation  of 
the  situation,  and  while  indulgences  are  still  given 
under  certain  conditions,  granting  them  for  money  was 
long  ago  prohibited,  and  has  since  been  unknown  in  the 
Catholic  Church. 

It  was  the  money  abuse  that  chiefly  aroused  the  in- 
dignation of  Luther  and  many  other  good  Catholics; 
for  he  was  by  no  means  the  only  one  in  his  own  or 
earlier  days  to  criticize  indulgences.  Among  others, 
his  own  superior,  Staupitz,  had  spoken  very  sharply 
about  them,  a  fact  to  which  Luther  later  appealed  in 
support  of  his  own  conduct.  But  all  these  criticisms 
left  unmolested  the  penitential  system  out  of  which 
indulgences  had  grown.  That  system  was  rooted  in 
the  very  heart  of  traditional  Catholicism;  to  attack  it 
was  to  put  oneself  outside  the  pale  of  the  historic  faith. 
This  was  the  last  thing  Luther  thought  of  doing.  As 
yet  he  was  playing  only  upon  the  surface,  all  unaware 
of  the  volcanic  depths  beneath. 

Meanwhile,  in  order  to  raise  funds  for  the  rebuild- 
ing of  St.  Peter's  Church  at  Rome,  Pope  Leo  X,  fol- 
lowing the  example  of  his  predecessor,  Julius  II,  pro- 
claimed a  so-called  "plenary  indulgence,"  phrased  in 
very  sweeping  terms  and  offering  to  believing  pur- 
chasers all  sorts  of  benefits,  including  remission  of 


From  a  carbon  print  by  Braun  &  Co.  of  the  paihting-  in  the  Pitti  Palace,  Florence 
POPE  LEO  X,  BY  RAPHAEL 


THE  ATTACK  ON  INDULGENCES       81 

sins,  freedom  from  the  necessity  of  penance,  and  the 
release  of  their  deceased  friends  from  purgatory. 

The  young  Archbishop  and  Elector  of  Mayence, 
Albert  of  Brandenburg,  a  Hohenzollern  prince,  being 
in  need  of  a  large  amount  of  money  to  pay  Rome  for 
the  privilege  of  assuming  the  archbishopric,  when  he 
already  held  two  other  sees,  made  an  arrangement 
with  the  pope  whereby  he  was  to  superintend  the  traffic 
in  a  part  of  Germany,  receiving  half  the  proceeds  in 
reward  for  his  services.  He  engaged  for  his  chief 
agent  a  Dominican  prior,  John  Tetzel  by  name,  a  man 
of  learning  and  reputation  and  a  preacher  of  great 
popular  power,  who  had  already  abundantly  proved 
his  ability  to  raise  money  for  sacred  ends.  Such  a 
passage  as  the  following  from  one  of  his  sermons 
shows  how  he  appealed  to  the  emotions  of  his  au- 
dience : 

Do  you  not  hear  your  dead  parents  crying  out  "Have 
mercy  upon  us?  We  are  in  sore  pain  and  you  can  set  us 
free  for  a  mere  pittance.  We  have  borne  you,  we  have 
trained  and  educated  you,  we  have  left  you  all  our  prop- 
erty, and  you  are  so  hard-hearted  and  cruel,  that  you  leave 
us  to  roast  in  the  flames  when  you  could  so  easily  release 
us." 

Tetzel  took  general  charge  of  affairs  and  appointed 
many  other  preachers  to  aid  him  in  the  work.  Elabo- 
rate arrangements  were  made  for  the  campaign,  and 
everything  possible  was  done  to  attract  and  impress  the 
people.  According  to  an  eye-witness,  when  the  agent 
appeared  in  a  town  he  was  met  by  priests,  monks,  city 
councilors,  teachers,  scholars,  men,  women,  maidens, 
and  children,  wrho  escorted  him  in  procession  with  ban- 
ners, candles,  and  singing,  the  papal  bull  being  carried 
in  state  upon  a  velvet  or  golden  cushion,  and  a  red 
cross  being  set  up  in  the  church,  with  the  pope's  arms 

6 


82  MARTIN  LUTHER 

above  it.  "In  short,  God  Himself  could  not  have  been 
more  magnanimously  received." 

The  parish  clergy  were  directed  to  prepare  their 
flocks  for  the  approaching  visit  of  Tetzel  or  his  as- 
sistants, and  they  were  carefully  instructed  both  how 
to  preach  and  how  to  deal  with  their  parishioners  in 
the  confessional,  that  eagerness  for  the  grace  of  Christ 
dispensed  through  the  indulgences  might  be  enhanced. 
We  are  inevitably  reminded  of  the  way  modern  revi- 
valists have  often  planned  their  campaigns  and  had  the 
ground  made  ready  in  advance.  Indeed,  the  effects 
aimed  at  by  Tetzel,  and  the  methods  employed  to  pro- 
duce them,  were  not  unlike  those  seen  in  great  revival 
seasons  to-day.  To  arouse  the  conscience  and  deepen 
the  conviction  of  sin,  and  then  to  lead  the  awakened 
and  anxious  soul  to  look  for  help  to  a  supernatural 
power — this  was  what  he  undertook  to  do,  and  he 
knew  well  how  to  do  it. 

It  is  true,  the  comparison  between  the  indulgence 
traffic  and  the  modern  revival  should  not  be  carried  too 
far,  for  the  former  was  poisoned  by  the  greed  for  gain 
almost  inevitably  attaching  to  it.  But  it  must  not  be 
forgotten  that,  despite  the  evils  shared  with  many  such 
religious  campaigns,  and  the  greater  evils  peculiar  to 
itself,  it  was  still  approved,  as  it  had  been  for  centuries, 
by  multitudes  of  pious  and  God-fearing  men. 

In  Luther's  day,  however,  disapproval  of  it  was 
steadily  growing.  As  frequently  happens,  particularly 
in  periods  of  social  upheaval,  when  the  public  con- 
science is  apt  to  be  peculiarly  sensitive,  the  excessive 
abuse  of  a  time-honored  practice,  whose  legitimacy  had 
hitherto  been  taken  for  granted,  was  leading  men  to 
question  the  practice  itself,  and  many  complaints  of 
the  harm  it  was  doing  both  religiously  and  morally 
were  heard  even  from  devout  churchmen  and  promi- 
nent ecclesiastics. 


THE  ATTACK  ON  INDULGENCES       83 

On  economic  grounds,  too,  hostility  was  spreading. 
The  traffic,  it  was  felt,  was  taking  large  sums  of  money 
from  the  pockets  of  the  people  without  giving  them 
any  tangible  returns.  As  a  rule,  every  new  papal  in- 
dulgence was  hailed  with  gratitude  by  the  masses,  and 
the  pope  only  met  the  popular  wish  in  proclaiming 
them ;  but  this  was  the  fifth  witnessed  by  that  genera- 
tion, and  many  were  beginning  to  realize  that  the  thing 
had  been  overdone,  and  were  growing  heartily  tired 
of  it.  There  were  still  those  glad  enough  to  buy,  espe- 
cially women  and  children ;  but  most  heads  of  families 
were  waxing  impatient  at  having  their  hard-earned 
savings  frequently  drawn  upon,  and  particularly  hated 
to  see  their  money,  as  in  the  present  case,  go  to  swell 
the  coffers  of  the  Fuggers,  the  great  money-lenders  of 
the  day,  who  had  advanced  a  large  sum  to  the  arch- 
bishop, and  to  whose  reimbursement  his  share  of  the 
proceeds,  as  everybody  knew,  was  to  be  devoted.  It  is 
noticeable  that  Tetzel  had  frequently  to  complain  of 
bad  coins  given  for  the  letters  of  pardon,  with  the 
evident  intention  of  satisfying  importunate  wives  and 
neighbors  without  incurring  unnecessary  expense. 

The  Elector  of  Saxony,  unwilling  to  have  his  sub- 
jects pay  the  debts  of  the  Elector  of  Mayence,  and 
desiring  to  protect  his  own  ecclesiastical  foundations, 
refused  to  allow  Albert's  agents  to  enter  his  domin- 
ions; but  in  the  spring  of  1517,  Tetzel  appeared  at 
\  Juterbog,  a  small  town  lying  just  across  the  border, 
twenty  miles  northeast  of  Wittenberg.  Many  of 
Luther's  flock  found  their  way  thither,  and  returned 
with  letters  of  indulgence  and  with  very  exaggerated 
and  demoralizing  notions  as  to  their  efficacy.  When  he 
refused  to  accept  them  in  the  confessional  in  lieu  of 
repentance  and  penance,  he  was  complained  of  to  Tet- 
zel and  threatened  with  prosecution  for  heresy  and 


84  MARTIN  LUTHER 

contumacy.     Writing  about  the  matter  to  Staupitz  a 
few  months  later,  he  said : 

I  remember,  Reverend  Father,  having  learned  from 
you,  as  by  a  voice  from  heaven,  that  penance  is  not  genu- 
ine unless  it  spring  from  a  love  of  righteousness  and 
God.  Just  when  my  heart  was  full  of  this  thought, 
behold,  new  indulgences  began  to  be  proclaimed  through 
the  country  in  the  most  noisy  fashion,  while  no  effort 
was  made  to  incite  the  soul  to  war  against  sin.  The 
preachers  neglected  altogether  the  need  of  true  penance, 
and  emphasized  in  ways  never  before  heard  not  so  much 
as  its  least  valuable  part,  which  is  known  as  satisfaction, 
but  the  complete  remission  even  of  that.  Finally,  they 
taught  impious  and  false  and  heretical  doctrines  in  so 
authoritative,  not  to  say  foolhardy,  a  manner,  that  if 
any  one  even  whispered  a  contrary  opinion,  he  was  im- 
mediately denounced  as  a  heretic,  condemned  to  the 
flames,  and  declared  worthy  of  eternal  damnation. 

Many  years  afterward,  in  one  of  his  typical  polemic 
works,  he  gave  the  following  account  of  the  affair: 

It  happened  in  the  year  1517  that  a  Dominican  monk, 
John  Tetzel  by  name,  a  great  ranter,  went  up  and  down 
selling  grace  for  gold  as  dear  or  as  cheap  as  he  could. 
The  Elector  Frederick  had  once  saved  his  life  in  Inns- 
bruck, for  he  had  been  condemned  by  the  emperor  Maxi- 
milian to  be  drowned  in  the  river  Inn,  for  his  virtue's 
sake,  you  may  well  believe.  This  the  man  confessed 
frankly,  being  reminded  of  it  by  the  elector  long  after- 
ward when  he  began  to  slander  us  Wittenbergers. 

I  was  at  the  time  a  preacher  in  the  cloister  and  a  young 
doctor  fresh  from  the  forge,  ardent  and  merry  in  the 
holy  Scriptures.  When  many  people  from  Wittenberg 
ran  after  indulgences  to  Jiiterbog  and  Zerbst,  and  I,  so 
truly  as  my  Christ  has  redeemed  me,  did  not  know  what 
indulgences  were,— as,  for  that  matter,  nobody  did,— I 


From  the  painting  by  Lucas  Cranach,  in  St.  Petersburg- 
ALBERT,  PRINCE   OF   BRANDENBURG,  ELECTOR   AND    ARCHBISHOP    OF   MAYENCE 


THE  ATTACK  ON  INDULGENCES       85 

began  to  preach  gently  that  it  was  certain  there  were 
better  things  to  do  than  buy  indulgences.  I  had  already 
preached  against  them  to  the  same  effect  here  in  the 
castle,  and  incurred  the  Elector  Frederick's  ill  will,  for 
he  was  very  fond  of  his  castle  church.  But  to  come  to 
the  true  cause  of  the  Lutheran  uproar,  I  let  the  matter  go 
on  as  it  would  until  news  reached  me  of  the  shocking  and 
horrible  things  Tetzel  was  preaching— as,  for  instance, 
that  he  had  received  such  grace  and  power  from  the  pope 
that  he  could  even  forgive  a  person  who  had  violated  the 
Mother  of  God,  if  the  proper  amount  were  put  in  the 
box;  that  the  red  cross  of  indulgence,  with  the  pope's 
arms,  when  set  up  in  church,  was  as  powerful  as  the 
cross  of  Christ ;  that  in  heaven  he  would  not  change  places 
with  St.  Peter  himself,  for  he  had  saved  more  souls  with 
indulgences  than  the  apostle  with  his  preaching;  that 
there  was  no  need  of  sorrow  or  repentance  or  confession 
of  sins,  if  indulgences  were  bought.  He  sold  indulgences 
also  for  future  sins,  and  all  was  done  in  the  most  shame- 
ful fashion,  for  money's  sake  alone. 

Where  Luther  got  the  grotesque  tale  about  Tetzel 
related  at  the  beginning  of  this  passage  we  do  not 
know.  At  any  rate  it  may  be  dismissed  as  quite  devoid 
of  truth.  Tetzel  seems  to  have  been  a  man  without 
particularly  high  ideals  or  sensitive  conscience,  but 
there  is  no  adequate  ground  for  the  accusations  of 
dishonesty  and  immorality  so  frequently  brought 
against  him.  He  gained  an  unenviable  notoriety  from 
the  controversy  precipitated  by  Luther,  and  all  sorts 
of  slanderous  stories  were  naturally  told  about  him. 

That  he  preached  the  many  abominable  things  cur- 
rently reported  and  repeated  here  in  part  by  Luther 
may  also  be  denied.  We  still  have  some  of  his  sermons 
and  other  writings  and  they  furnish  no  justification 
for  such  charges.  At  the  same  time,  though  the  spe- 
cific counts  in  Luther's  indictment  are  without  support, 


86  MARTIN  LUTHER 

the  impression  made  upon  the  common  people  by 
Tetzel  and  his  agents  was  quite  bad  enough.  The  bene- 
fits of  indulgences  were  magnified  beyond  all  warrant, 
and  in  the  effort  to  attract  purchasers,  assurances  were 
given  which  could  not  fail  to  work  mischief  and  pro- 
mote moral  callousness  and  indifference. 

That  Luther  should  feel  profoundly  outraged  by 
the  whole  sorry  business  was  inevitable.  He  was, 
above  everything,  downright  and  sincere,  instinctively 
hostile  to  all  duplicity  and  pretense,  while  the  indul- 
gence traffic,  as  appeared  more  clearly  than  ever  in 
Tetzel's  campaign,  was  through  and  through  a  sham; 
on  the  one  side,  greed  for  gain  consciously  masquerad- 
ing under  the  form  of  regard  for  the  people's  good; 
on  the  other,  the  insidious  and  subtle  self-deception 
of  imagining  that  anything  but  reality  counts  in  the 
moral  realm— the  effort  to  salve  one's  conscience  by 
hollow  acts  of  devotion  and  to  escape  by  the  payment 
of  money  the  inevitable  consequences  of  one's  deeds. 
Clear-eyed  and  intolerant  of  all  sophistry,  Luther 
hated  it  with  a  growing  hatred;  and  the  pretended 
piety  of  the  whole  transaction  incensed  him  only  the 
more. 

Religion  was  the  most  sacred  of  all  affairs  to  him. 
For  its  sake  he  had  long  ago  broken  with  his  father 
and  abandoned  a  career  of  great  worldly  promise,  and 
in  his  religious  life  he  had  passed  through  the  most 
agonizing  and  exalted  experiences  possible  to  a  human 
soul.  To  make  it  a  matter  of  buying  and  selling,  to 
offer  divine  grace  for  gold,  and  to  attempt  to  purchase 
the  forgiveness  and  favor  of  God— all  this  was  to 
befoul  the  holiest  of  all  relationships;  and,  like  the 
prophets  of  old,  his  pious  soul  waxed  hot  within  him. 

It  would  seem,  in  view  of  it  all,  that  he  must  at 
once  attack  Tetzel  with  his  wonted  energy  and  disre- 


THE  ATTACK  ON  INDULGENCES       87 

gard  of  consequences;  but  strangely  enough,  he  held 
his  peace.  Quick  as  he  had  hitherto  been  to  denounce 
any  evil  confronting  him,  now,  in  the  face  of  the 
worst  and  most  crying  abuse  yet  encountered,  he  took 
careful  counsel  with  himself.  Tetzel  soon  left  the 
neighborhood  and  passed  on  to  other  places,  but  Luther 
continued  to  deliberate  in  silence.  For  more  than  six 
months,  though  plied  with  questions  from  far  and 
near  as  to  his  opinion  of  the  traffic,  he  made  no  sign, 
but  set  himself  to  study  quietly  the  whole  subject  of 
indulgences.  The  present  campaign,  he  saw  clearly 
enough,  was  far  more  demoralizing  than  anything  he 
had  preached  against  in  the  castle  church;  but  it  was 
carried  on  under  the  auspices  of  the  primate  of  Ger- 
many and  of  the  pope  himself,  and  it  would  not  do  to 
attack  it  recklessly  and  indiscriminately.  He  must  dis- 
cover, if  he  could,  the  right  and  wrong  of  the  whole 
matter. 

His  character  and  training  made  the  situation  pecul- 
iarly difficult.  Had  he  been  a  humanist,  he  would 
have  laughed  the  whole  thing  to  scorn  as  an  exploded 
superstition  beneath  the  contempt  of  an  intelligent 
man;  had  he  been  a  scholastic  theologian,  he  would 
have  sat  in  his  study  and  drawn  fine  distinctions  to 
justify  the  traffic  without  bothering  himself  about  its 
influence  upon  the  lives  of  the  vulgar  populace.  But 
he  was  neither  humanist  nor  schoolman.  He  had  a 
conscience  which  made  indifference  impossible,  and  a 
simplicity  and  directness  of  vision  which  compelled 
him  to  brush  aside  all  equivocation  and  go  straight 
to  the  heart  of  things.  With  it  all  he  was  at  once  a 
devout  and  believing  son  of  the  church,  and  a  practical 
preacher  profoundly  concerned  for  the  spiritual  and 
moral  welfare  of  the  common  people. 

Here  was  a  case  where  the  ecclesiastical  authorities 


88  MARTIN  LUTHER 

he  had  always  reverenced  were  sanctioning  a  practice 
the  demoralizing  consequences  of  which  were  becoming 
ever  clearer  to  him.  He  could  not  wash  his  hands  of 
the  matter,  and  yet  he  could  not  grapple  with  it  with- 
out involving  the  highest  dignitaries  of  the  church  he 
loved  and  honored.  He  must  have  suffered  agonies 
during  that  critical  summer  of  1517,  striving  to  recon- 
cile positions  essentially  irreconcilable,  struggling  to 
keep  his  faith  and  yet  be  true  to  his  conscience  which 
threatened  it  with  shipwreck,  torn  by  a  conflict  of  loy- 
alties whose  inconsistency  he  was  just  beginning  to 
realize.  His  distress  can  hardly  have  been  less  severe 
than  in  his  convent  days  at  Erfurt.  But  there  was  only 
one  possible  outcome  for  a  man  who  had  fought  him- 
self through  the  earlier  crisis  as  he  had  done,  and  had 
since  been  standing  for  what  he  deemed  right,  maugre 
neighbors,  students,  colleagues,  princes,  and  prelates. 
Wait  as  he  might,  he  must  ultimately  enter  upon  the 
conflict,  whatever  the  consequences  to  himself  or 
others. 

But  even  when  his  mind  was  made  up  and  the  die 
cast,  he  proceeded  in  a  way  that  seems  at  first  sight  as 
strange  as  his  long  delay.  Instead  of  thundering 
against  Tetzel  from  the  pulpit  or  publishing  a  polemic 
pamphlet  such  as  no  one  but  he  could  write,  or  issuing 
an  open  letter  to  the  archbishop  calling  him  sharply  to 
account,  as  he  was  quite  capable  of  doing,  he  invited 
the  theologians  of  Wittenberg  and  the  neighborhood 
to  a  disputation.  It  was  a  common  custom  to  celebrate 
important  anniversaries  of  the  castle  church  by  theolog- 
ical debates,  and  on  October  31,  just  a  year  after  he 
had  first  preached  upon  indulgences  from  its  pulpit, 
adopting  the  usual  method  of  announcing  such  a  de- 
bate, he  posted  a  placard  on  the  church  door  giving 
notice  of  the  proposed  disputation,  and  stating  the 


THE  ATTACK  ON  INDULGENCES       89 

theses  he  intended  to  defend.  There  were  ninety-five 
of  them,  written  in  Latin  in  his  own  hand,  and  they 
were  preceded  by  this  announcement : 

In  the  desire,  and  with  the  purpose,  of  elucidating  the 
truth,  a  disputation  will  be  held  on  the  subjoined  proposi- 
tions at  Wittenberg,  under  the  presidency  of  the  Rever- 
end Father  Martin  Luther,  Augustinian  monk,  master  of 
arts  and  of  sacred  theology,  and  ordinary  lecturer  upon 
the  same  in  that  place.  He  therefore  asks  those  who  can- 
not be  present  and  discuss  the  subject  orally  to  do  so  by 
letter  in  their  absence. 

The  theses  themselves  reveal  at  once  the  professor 
and  the  preacher.  The  Latin  language  and  the  method 
of  argumentation  proclaim  the  professor,  but  the  vivid, 
direct,  and  often  picturesque  style  betrays  the  preacher. 
He  might  elect  to  throw  his  criticisms  into  scholastic 
form,  but  he  felt  it  to  be  no  scholastic  question  he  was 
discussing,  and  the  earnestness  of  a  practical  appeal 
crept  into  the  document  in  spite  of  him. 

That  he  chose  to  bring  the  indulgence  traffic  to  pub- 
lic debate  does  not  mean  that  he  was  afraid  to  speak 
his  mind  categorically  or  was  still  in  doubt  about  the 
right  or  w7rong  of  the  matter.  On  the  contrary,  he 
was  quite  clear  upon  all  but  a  few  minor  and  unim- 
portant details.  He  desired  a  debate  simply  because  he 
wished  to  give  the  demand  for  reform,  already  fully 
determined  upon,  the  support  of  a  formal  university 
decision.  Reinforcement,  rather  than  enlightenment, 
was  what  he  sought. 

The  subject  of  indulgences  was  very  difficult  and 
complicated.  Upon  many  of  the  matters  connected  with 
it  the  church  had  never  pronounced  itself  officially,  and 
the  opinions  of  theologians  were  greatly  divided.  Had 
he  been  troubled  only  by  the  flagrant  abuses  of  venders 


90  MARTIN  LUTHER 

and  buyers,  a  debate  would  have  been  superfluous ;  but 
he  had  become  convinced  that  both  the  practice  and 
the  principles  underlying  it  were  wrong,  and  the  evils 
could  not  be  mended  without  laying  the  ax  at  the  root 
of  the  tree.  Upon  such  a  question  theologians  alone 
were  regarded  as  competent  to  express  an  opinion,  and 
hence  he  appealed  to  them.  He  declared  himself  will- 
ing to  yield  completely  if  his  theses  should  meet  with 
defeat,  but  he  was  confident  of  his  ground  and  sure 
they  must  prevail.  He  was  therefore  in  earnest  in  his 
wish  for  a  debate,  and  resolved  to  use  as  a  weapon  of 
reform  the  victory  he  was  convinced  would  follow. 

The  theses  themselves  are  abundant  proof  of  this. 
There  is  no  sign  of  doubt  or  uncertainty,  no  beating 
about  the  bush,  no  confusion  of  the  main  issue  by  irrel- 
evant questions,  but  a  direct  assault  both  upon  the 
theory  and  practice  of  indulgences.  If  hitherto  he  had 
criticized  only  their  abuse,  now  he  attacked  indulgences 
themselves  in  the  most  outspoken  fashion.  He  com- 
plained that  they  were  nets  wherewith  to  catch  money, 
and  hindered  the  proclamation  of  the  true  gospel. 
Christians  should  be  taught,  he  went  on  to  say,  that  he 
who  neglects  any  one  in  need  in  order  to  save  money 
for  their  purchase  brings  down  upon  himself  the  anger 
of  God;  and  unless  he  has  superfluous  wealth,  is 
bound  to  keep  what  he  has  for  the  use  of  his  own 
household  instead  of  lavishing  it  upon  pardons.  More- 
over, he  so  minimized  their  effects  and  limited  their 
scope  as  virtually  to  deprive  them  of  all  value. 

The  final  blow  was  struck  in  the  thirty-sixth  and 
thirty-seventh  theses,  in  the  sweeping  assertions : 
"Every  Christian  who  feels  true  compunction  has  of 
right  plenary  remission  of  punishment  and  guilt  with- 
out letters  of  indulgence" ;  and  "Every  true  Christian, 
whether  living  or  dead,  has  a  share  in  all  the  benefits 


THE  ATTACK  ON  INDULGENCES       91 

of  Christ  and  the  church,  given  him  by  God,  even  with- 
out such  letters."  Certainly  where  this  was  believed, 
little  hope  could  remain  of  finding  a  market  for  the 
spiritual  wares  Tetzel  had  to  offer. 

But  the  theses  were  not  simply  an  attack  upon  in- 
dulgences. They  went  much  further  and  cut  much 
deeper,  for  they  repudiated  the  principles  upon  which 
the  whole  practice  rested.  In  the  very  first  thesis  it 
is  declared,  "Christ  wished  the  entire  life  of  believers 
to  be  repentance."  And  the  conclusion  is  drawn  that 
the  outward  acts  of  penance,  everywhere  regarded 
as  satisfactions  for  sin,  were  only  the  natural  expres- 
sion of  inner  penitence,  suggesting  that  the  divine 
forgiveness  is  not  conditioned  in  any  way  upon  satis- 
faction, but  upon  repentance  alone.  This  meant  the 
implicit  rejection  not  only  of  indulgences,  but  of  the 
whole  penitential  system  accepted  in  the  Catholic 
Church  both  east  and  west  since  the  second  century. 
The  matter  was  not  carried  further  in  the  theses,  but 
it  is  clear  enough  where  Luther  stood  and  how  far  he 
had  traveled  from  the  Catholicism  he  had  been  born 
and  bred  in. 

He  did  not  realize  the  irreconcilable  difference  be- 
tween himself  and  the  church,  nor  did  he  appreciate 
his  complete  lack  of  harmony  with  the  pope,  though 
he  may  have  suspected  it,  for  he  was  no  longer  a  mere 
na'ive  and  inexperienced  young  monk.  But,  however 
that  may  be,  he  expressed  the  conviction,  "If  pardons 
were  preached  according  to  the  spirit  and  mind  of  the 
pope,  all  the  questions  raised  about  them  would  be  re- 
solved with  ease,  nay,  would  not  exist";  and  though 
he  had  emptied  them  of  all  value,  he  yet  declared, 
"Bishops  and  curates  are  bound  to  receive  the  commis- 
saries of  apostolic  indulgences  with  all  reverence,"  and, 
"He  who  speaks  against  their  truth,  let  him  be 


92  MARTIN  LUTHER 

anathema."  He  felt  himself  driven  to  oppose  those 
who  preached  "their  own  dreams  in  place  of  the  pope's 
commission/'  and  to  exert  himself  "against  the  wan- 
tonness and  license  of  the  preachers,"  but  in  this  he 
believed  he  was  only  showing  himself  loyal  both  to 
church  and  pope.  His  divided  attitude  was  entirely 
natural,  and  simply  shows  how  sincere  he  was  and 
how  seriously  he  took  the  situation. 

He  sent  a  copy  of  his  theses  to  the  Archbishop  of 
Mayence  with  a  letter  of  explanation,  in  which  he  said : 

Pardon  me,  most  reverend  Father  in  Christ,  most  il- 
lustrious Prince,  that  I,  the  dregs  of  humanity,  have  the 
temerity  to  address  a  letter  to  your  Sublimity.  The  Lord 
Jesus  is  my  witness  that,  conscious  of  my  insignificance 
and  wickedness,  I  have  long  put  off  what  I  now  do  with  a 
bold  face,  moved  by  a  sense  of  the  duty  I  owe  you,  most 
reverend  Father  in  Christ.  May  your  Highness  deign  to 
look  upon  one  who  is  but  dust,  and  understand  my  wish 
for  your  pontifical  forbearance.  In  your  most  illustrious 
name  there  are  carried  about  papal  indulgences  for  the 
building  of  St.  Peter's.  I  do  not  so  much  complain  of  the 
utterances  of  the  preachers,  which  I  have  not  heard,  as  of 
the  false  opinions  everywhere  entertained  by  the  common 
people;  for  the  poor  creatures  believe  that  if  they  buy 
indulgences,  they  are  sure  of  salvation,  that  souls  fly  out 
of  purgatory  as  soon  as  they  throw  their  money  into  the 
box,  and  that  the  grace  is  so  great  that  there  is  no  sin 
which  cannot  be  absolved  thereby.  .  .  . 

In  addition,  most  reverend  Father  in  the  Lord,  in 
the  instructions  for  the  use  of  the  agents  published  in 
your  name  it  is  said,  doubtless  without  your  Reverence's 
knowledge  and  consent,  that  one  of  the  principal  benefits 
to  be  had  from  indulgences  is  the  inestimable  gift  of 
God  whereby  man  is  reconciled  to  Him  and  all  the  pun- 
ishments of  purgatory  blotted  out,  and  that  to  those  who 
buy  pardons  contrition  is  unnecessary.  What  can  I  do, 


PRESENT  APPEARANCE    OF    THE    CASTLE    CHURCH 
IN    WITTENBERG 


THE  ATTACK  ON  INDULGENCES       93 

most  excellent  Patron  and  most  illustrious  Prince,  but 
pray  your  Reverence,  through  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  to 
look  into  the  matter  and  do  away  wholly  with  those  in- 
structions and  command  the  preachers  to  adopt  another 
style  of  discourse,  lest  perchance  some  one  may  finally 
arise  and  refute  them  in  print,  to  the  confusion  of  your 
most  illustrious  Highness.  This  I  should  greatly  deplore ; 
but  I  fear  it  may  be  done  unless  matters  be  speedily 
mended. 

The  mingled  respect  and  menace  of  this  extraordi- 
nary letter  are  very  interesting.  Evidently  Luther 
realized  that  he  had  to  deal  not  merely  with  Tetzel  and 
his  agents  but  with  the  Primate  of  Germany  himself. 
His  views  on  penance  and  indulgences,  he  doubtless 
knew  well  enough,  were  out  of  harmony  with  those 
prevailing  in  high  quarters,  but  he  apparently  still 
hoped,  even  if  not  very  confidently,  that  his  attack 
might  not  mean  a  break  with  the  rulers  of  the  church, 
that  rather  than  have  the  whole  subject  of  indulgences 
thrown  open  to  public  debate  they  would  be  glad  to 
disavow  responsibility  and  lay  the  blame  for  all  the 
abuses  upon  their  subordinates.  At  any  rate,  he  left  this 
way  of  escape  open  to  the  Archbishop,  and  assumed 
as  long  as  he  could  his  own  essential  harmony  with 
the  constituted  authorities  in  his  struggle  for  reform. 
Whatever  their  attitude  might  ultimately  prove  to  be, 
he  was  at  least  sure  he  held  the  true  Christian  faith 
and  was  a  loyal  son  of  the  church.  Commenting  upon 
the  theses  shortly  afterward,  he  declared :  "Although 
friends  have  been  saying  for  some  time  that  I  am  a 
heretic  and  blasphemer  because  I  do  not  interpret  the 
teaching  of  church  and  Scriptures  in  a  Catholic  sense, 
nevertheless,  relying  upon  my  own  conscience,  I  be- 
lieve they  are  mistaken  and  I  truly  love  the  church 
of  Christ  and  desire  to  honor  it." 


94  MARTIN  LUTHER 

He  had  been  for  some  time  engaged  in  opposing 
the  schoolmen.  In  the  theory  of  indulgences  and  even 
in  the  penitential  system  itself — though,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  latter  was  much  older  than  they — he  saw 
only  another  evidence  of  their  nefarious  influence;  and 
it  is  not  surprising  that  he  could  think  himself  an 
orthodox  Catholic  even  while  taking  the  radical  posi- 
tions he  did.  His  own  bishop,  Scultetus  of  Branden- 
burg, to  whom  he  sent  a  copy  of  the  theses,  declared 
he  found  nothing  heterodox  in  them.  To  be  sure,  he 
was  a  man  of  humanistic  leanings  and  more  or  less 
out  of  sympathy  with  scholasticism ;  but  he  was  a  strict 
disciplinarian,  and  would  not  for  a  moment  have  toler- 
ated an  attack  upon  church  or  pope. 

Luther  also  sent  the  theses  to  his  friend  Lang,  re- 
questing him  to  communicate  them  to  the  Erfurt  pro- 
fessors, as  he  had  already  done  with  his  attack  upon 
Aristotle.  He  wrote  as  follows : 

Behold,  I  am  sending  you  some  more  paradoxes,  my 
most  reverend  Father  in  Christ.  If  your  theologians  are 
offended  at  them  and  say,  as  all  are  saying  concerning 
me,  that  I  express  my  judgment  and  condemn  the  opin- 
ions of  others  too  rashly  and  proudly,  I  reply  through 
you  that  I  should  be  greatly  pleased  at  their  ripe  and 
sober  modesty  if  they  really  exhibited  it  in  fact  instead 
of  simply  finding  fault  with  my  levity  and  precipitancy. 
For  it  is  easy,  as  I  see,  to  censure  this  vice  in  me.  .  .  . 

So  far  as  my  boldness  or  modesty  is  concerned  I  know 
for  certain,  that  if  I  am  modest  the  truth  will  not  be  made 
more  worthy  by  my  modesty,  or  if  I  am  bold,  more  un- 
worthy by  my  boldness.  This  alone  I  ask  of  you 
and  your  theologians,  that  without  troubling  themselves 
about  my  character,  they  express  their  opinion  of  my 
statements  and  conclusions,  and,  if  they  find  any  errors 
in  them,  tell  me  what  they  are.  For  who  does  not  know 
that  without  pride,  or  at  least  the  appearance  of  pride 


THE  ATTACK  ON  INDULGENCES       95 

and  the  suspicion  of  contentiousness,  nothing  new  can  be 
done?  However  great  your  humility  in  attempting  the 
unusual,  you  are  always  accused  of  pride  by  those  who 
think  otherwise.  Why  were  Christ  and  all  the  martyrs 
put  to  death,  and  learned  doctors  visited  with  hatred,  but 
because  they  were  thought  arrogant  and  contemptuous 
of  ancient  things,  or  proposed  novel  ways  without  taking 
the  advice  of  those  who  were  expert  in  the  old?  I  do 
not  wish  them  to  expect  me  to  be  so  humble— that  is,  so 
hypocritical — as  to  submit  whatever  I  say  to  their  advice 
and  decision.  What  I  do,  I  wish  to  do  not  by  man's  will 
or  counsel,  but  by  God's.  If  it  be  of  God,  who  shall  stop 
it?  If  it  be  not  of  God,  who  can  forward  it?  Not  my 
will,  nor  theirs,  nor  ours,  but  Thine  be  done,  Holy  Father 
who  art  in  Heaven.  Amen. 

In  this  letter,  written  but  a  few  days  after  the  posting 
of  the  theses,  he  first  signed  himself,  with  a  play  upon 
his  name  such  as  the  humanists  loved  to  indulge  in, 
Martinus  Eleutherius  (Martin  the  Free),  for  some  time 
a  favorite  form  of  subscription  in  letters  to  intimate 
friends.  It  throws  an  interesting  light  upon  his  state 
of  mind.  He  had  been  troubled  and  perplexed  for 
many  months ;  when  finally  a  decision  was  reached  and 
the  decisive  step  taken,  he  felt  a  sense  of  exhilaration 
all  the  greater  because  of  the  preceding  struggle.  He 
had  not  rushed  precipitately  into  the  conflict;  he  had 
weighed  the  matter  carefully  and  held  back  as  long  as 
he  could;  but  once  committed  to  the  attack,  the  joy  of 
battle  was  upon  him,  and  there  was  no  yielding  until 
victory  was  won. 

The  reception  accorded  his  theses  was  very  diverse. 
Tetzel  was  naturally  angered  by  them,  and  many 
others  not  financially  interested  in  the  traffic,  as  he  was, 
were  shocked  and  distressed.  Most  of  Luther's  own 
friends  were  greatly  alarmed,  and,  even  though  sym- 


96  MARTIN  LUTHER 

pathizing  with  his  attitude,  felt  he  had  gone  altogether 
too  far.  Referring  to  the  matter  long  afterward,  he 
said: 

God  brought  me  forward  wonderfully,  and  led  me  into 
the  game  quite  without  my  knowledge  more  than  twenty 
years  ago.  Things  went  very  poorly  at  first.  The  day 
after  the  festival  of  All  Saints  in  the  year  1517,  when  I 
had  ventured  to  oppose  the  grave  and  public  error  of  in- 
dulgences, Dr.  Jerome  Schurf,  while  we  were  walking 
together  to  Kemberg,  took  me  sharply  to  task,  exclaim- 
ing: "You  would  write  against  the  pope?  What  do  you 
hope  to  accomplish  by  it  ?  They  will  not  suffer  it."  And 
I  replied,  "What  if  they  must  suffer  it?" 

He  had  evidently  expected  the  disapproval  of  Hts 
friends,  for  he  kept  his  own  counsel  and  told  nobody 
of  his  intentions.  "In  the  beginning  of  my  career," 
he  once  remarked,  "when  I  wrote  against  indulgences 
and  their  abuse,  I  received  from  Heaven  the  gift  of 
depending  upon  myself  instead  of  others."  His  col- 
leagues, as  is  apt  to  be  the  case,  found  fault  with  him 
because  they  feared  he  would  bring  the  university  into 
disrepute  and  decrease  the  attendance,  and  his  brother 
monks  were  distressed  at  the  scandal  they  foresaw  he 
was  preparing  for  the  Augustinian  order.  "When  I 
first  attacked  indulgences,  and  all  the  world  opened 
their  eyes  and  thought  I  had  attempted  too  much,  my 
prior  and  subprior,  troubled  by  the  cry  of  heresy,  came 
and  begged  me  not  to  bring  disgrace  upon  the  order. 
But  when  I  replied,  'Dear  fathers,  if  it  be  not  begun 
in  God's  name,  it  will  soon  come  to  naught,  but  if  it 
be,  let  Him  look  after  it/  they  had  nothing  more  to 
say." 

On  the  other  hand,  in  many  circles  the  theses  met 
with  warm  approval.  Duke  George  of  Saxony,  pos- 


THE  ATTACK  ON  INDULGENCES       97 

sessing,  like  his  cousin  Frederick,  ecclesiastical  foun- 
dations supported  by  indulgences,  was  greatly  annoyed 
at  the  papal  competition,  and,  though  later  one  of 
Luther's  bitterest  enemies,  expressed  himself  at  the 
time  as  delighted  with  the  theses.  The  Elector  Fred- 
erick, while  guarded  in  his  utterances,  as  was  his  wont, 
was  evidently  pleased  with  the  daring  young  monk  and 
glad  to  have  a  check  put  upon  Tetzel's  traffic.  The 
theses,  it  is  true,  were  fitted  to  discredit  indulgences  al- 
together, and  so  interfere  also  with  some  of  his  own 
institutions ;  but  he  took  no  exception  to  Luther's  ac- 
tion, and  public  opinion  in  some  quarters  even  credited 
him  with  being  himself  the  instigator  of  the  attack, 
his  willingness  to  see  a  neighboring  elector,  with  whom 
he  was  not  on  the  best  of  terms,  inconvenienced  being 
assumed  as  a  matter  of  course.  At  any  rate,  though 
this  assumption  was  unwarranted,  he  stood  by  his 
monk  and  professor  even  when  the  attack  grew  bitter- 
est, and  refused  to  deliver  him  over  to  his  foes. 

But  most  surprising  to  Luther  himself,  and  histori- 
cally of  greater  importance  than  anything  else,  was  the 
tremendous  chorus  of  approval  that  arose  from  the 
nation  at  large.  To  his  great  astonishment,  the  theses 
were  at  once  translated  into  German  and  read  by  all 
classes  of  people  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  In  the 
polemic  work  quoted  on  page  84  he  observed : 

In  fourteen  days  the  theses  ran  through  all  Germany; 
for  the  whole  world  was  complaining  of  indulgences, 
especially  as  preached  by  Tetzel.  When  all  the  bishops 
and  doctors  were  silent  and  nobody  ventured  to  bell  the 
cat, — for  the  Dominican  heresy-hunters  had  frightened 
every  one  with  the  threat  of  the  stake,  and  Tetzel  him- 
self had  persecuted  certain  priests  who  had  criticized  his 
shameless  methods,— then  I  became  famous,  because  at 
last  some  one  had  appeared  who  dared  to  take  hold  of  the 


98  MARTIN  LUTHER 

business.  But  the  glory  of  it  was  not  agreeable  to  me, 
for  I  myself  did  not  know  what  indulgences  were,  and  the 
song  threatened  to  become  too  high  for  my  voice. 

Writing  in  the  spring  of  1518  to  Christopher 
Scheurl,  who  had  sent  him  from  Nuremberg  a  copy 
of  the  theses  with  a  German  translation,  he  said : 

You  wonder  I  did  not  send  them  to  you,  but  it  was  not 
my  plan  or  my  wish  to  have  them  get  into  general  cir- 
culation. I  intended  first  to  discuss  them  with  a  few  in 
this  neighborhood,  that,  if  condemned  by  the  judgment  of 
others,  they  might  be  suppressed,  or,  if  approved,  might 
be  published.  But  now,  contrary  to  my  expectation,  they 
are  being  repeatedly  translated,  so  that  I  repent  having 
given  birth  to  them.  Not  that  I  am  averse  to  having  the 
truth  made  known  to  the  people,  for  there  is  nothing  I 
desire  more;  but  this  is  not  the  best  way  to  instruct 
them.  For  there  are  certain  points  I  am  in  doubt  about, 
and  I  should  have  said  some  things  in  a  very  different 
way  and  with  greater  assurance,  or  should  have  omitted 
them  altogether,  if  I  had  seen  what  was  to  happen. 

He  had  no  idea  that  the  impatience  and  discontent 
of  the  people  were  as  wide-spread  as  they  proved  to  be. 
He  had  not  looked  to  them,  nor  had  he  counted  on  their 
support.  He  had  indeed  the  scholar's  inbred  contempt 
for  the  opinions  of  the  uneducated.  But  their  en- 
thusiastic response  to  an  appeal  not  meant  for  them, 
when  those  to  whom  it  was  addressed  showed  them- 
selves indifferent  or  hostile,  changed  the  whole  situa- 
tion. He  gained  a  following,  and  the  people  gained  a 
leader.  Hitherto  he  had  been  monk,  professor, 
preacher,  district-vicar;  now  he  sprang  in  a  moment 
into  national  prominence.  The  hearts  of  men  in  all 
parts  of  the  land  turned  toward  him,  and  his  heart 


THE  ATTACK  ON  INDULGENCES       99 

turned  toward  them.  For  the  religious  principles  un- 
derlying the  theses  they  cared  little,  for  the  arguments 
sustaining  them  still  less.  They  saw  only  that  here 
was  a  man,  muzzled  by  none  of  the  prudential  con- 
siderations closing  the  mouths  of  many  in  high  places, 
who  dared  to  speak  his  mind  plainly  and  emphatically, 
and  was  able  to  speak  it  intelligently  and  with  effect 
upon  a  great  and  growing  evil  deplored  by  multitudes. 
It  is  such  a  man  the  people  love  and  such  a  man  they 
trust. 

He  might  regard  his  theses  only  as  propositions  for 
debate,  but  they  were  widely  interpreted  as  a  direct 
.and  uncompromising  attack.  And  they  were  applauded 
not  merely  because  of  dislike  for  the  indulgence  traffic, 
but  also  because  of  discontent  with  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  papacy  in  many  lines  and  hostility  to 
the  overmastering  influence  of  a  foreign  power  in 
national  affairs.  Restlessness  over  the  situation  was 
becoming  steadily  more  and  more  wide-spread.  The 
promise  for  the  future  involved  in  Luther's  stand  ap- 
pealed to  the  nation  and  aroused  its  enthusiasm.  "Ho, 
ho,  he  is  come  who  will  do  what  is  needed !"  some  one 
is  reported  to  have  cried  when  he  read  the  theses,  and 
his  exclamation  well  voiced  the  feeling  of  multitudes 
as  they  looked  with  admiration  on  the  daring  monk  and 
thrilled  with  sympathy  for  his  act.  Just  what  was  to 
happen  nobody  knew ;  a  break  with  papacy  and  church 
few  anticipated;  but  that  a  man  had  appeared  who 
could  be  counted  on  to  grapple  with  existing  evils  and 
to  lead  the  way  toward  a  better  state  of  things  multi- 
tudes felt  even  if  but  dimly.  From  this  time  on 
Luther  always  had  the  people  in  mind,  appealed  to 
them,  and  regarded  himself  as  their  spokesman,  while 
they  listened  eagerly  to  all  he  had  to  say  and  were 
quick  to  follow  where  he  led. 


ioo  MARTIN  LUTHER 

It  is  the  fashion  nowadays  to  belittle  the  importance 
of  his  act  in  posting  the  theses, — the  modern  historian 
looks  with  suspicion  upon  all  dramatic  incidents, — but 
it  made  him  a  popular  leader  and  for  such  a  leader  as 
he  was  yet  to  be  Germany  had  long  been  waiting. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  GATHERING  STORM 

"T  HOPED  the  pope  would  protect  me,  for  I  had  so 
A  fortified  my  theses  with  proofs  from  the  Bible  and 
papal  decretals  that  I  was  sure  he  would  condemn 
Tetzel  and  bless  me.  But  when  I  expected  a  benedic- 
tion from  Rome,  there  came  thunder  and  lightning  in- 
stead, and  I  was  treated  like  the  sheep  who  had  roiled 
the  wolf's  water.  Tetzel  went  scot-free,  and  I  must 
submit  to  be  devoured." 

Thus  Luther  describes  the  treatment  received  from 
Rome,  and  the  description  is  in  no  way  overdrawn.  At 
first  the  cultivated  and  liberal  humanist  who  enjoyed 
the  papacy  under  the  name  of  Leo  X  thought  the  affair 
of  no  importance,  and  dismissed  it  as  a  mere  monk's 
quarrel.  Luther  was  told  that  he  remarked  sarcasti- 
cally upon  hearing  of  the  theses :  "A  drunken  German 
wrote  them.  When  he  is  sober  he  will  think  differ- 
ently." Whether  the  report  is  true  or  not,  the  words 
are  entirely  in  keeping  with  what  we  know  of  Leo's 
character.  After  a  time,  however,  it  became  clear  that 
the  theses  were  having  their  effect,  and  the  sale  of  in- 
dulgences was  rapidly  falling  off.  From  the  beginning 
the  campaign  had  not  gone  as  well  as  had  been  hoped, 
and  the  sums  obtained  in  Germany,  usually  the  best 
market  for  such  wares,  fell  far  short  of  the  wishes  of 
archbishop  and  pope.  Little  as  they  might  care  about 
the  right  or  wrong  of  Luther's  criticism,  they  were 

101 


102  MARTIN  LUTHER 

both  deeply  interested  in  the  financial  side  of  the  traf- 
fic, and  anything  affecting  it  unfavorably,  they  agreed, 
must  be  suppressed.  In  a  monarchy  like  the  papacy, 
constitutional  safeguards  availed  little.  Theoretically 
the  question  of  indulgences  was  at  least  in  part  an  open 
one,  and  in  the  absence  of  conciliar  decisions,  wide 
differences  of  opinion  were  legitimate;  but  whether 
legitimate  or  not,  any  opinion  was  bound  to  be 
frowned  upon  if  it  seriously  curtailed  the  papal  in- 
come. 

The  matter  was  first  taken  up  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Mayence,  who  threatened  the  Wittenberg  monk  with 
condemnation  for  heresy,  evidently  expecting  he  would 
be  frightened  and  immediately  recant.  But  Luther  was 
made  of  other  stuff,  and  though  such  a  response  to  his 
theses  was  not  what  he  had  looked  for,  he  was  above 
being  terrified  even  by  so  august  an  ecclesiastic.  See- 
ing that  his  threat  availed  nothing,  and  apparently 
loath  to  involve  himself  in  a  possible  quarrel  with 
Staupitz  and  the  Augustinian  order,  the  easy-going 
archbishop  finally  washed  his  hands  of  the  whole  mat- 
ter and  referred  the  case  to  Rome.  There  the  situa- 
tion did  not  seem  at  first  to  call  for  ecclesiastical  action, 
and  the  pope  contented  himself  with  requesting  the 
general  of  the  Augustinian  order,  resident  in  Rome, 
to  silence  his  troublesome  monk. 

Meanwhile  Tetzel,  who  had  the  best  opportunity  of 
observing  the  effects  of  the  theses,  felt  it  necessary  to 
take  active  measures  to  counteract  them.  Early  in 
1518,  the  new  university  of  Frank fort-on-the-Oder, 
where  the  rivalry  with  Wittenberg  was  keen,  conferred 
upon  him  the  degree  of  doctor  of  theology,  and  his 
promotion  was  made  the  occasion  for  a  great  demon- 
stration by  the  Dominicans,  who  assembled  to  do  him 
honor  three  hundred  strong.  Tetzel  employed  the 


From  an  old  print 


DR.   PFEFFINGER 


THE  GATHERING  STORM  103 

opportunity  thus  offered  to  publish  a  series  of  counter- 
theses,  dealing  with  indulgences,  and  subsequently  an- 
other dealing  with  the  power  of  the  pope.  The  second 
set  out  in  clear  and  emphatic  fashion  the  doctrine  of 
papal  infallibility,  held  by  a  party  in  the  church  ever 
since  the  later  Middle  Ages,  but  given  dogmatic  defini- 
tion only  at  the  Vatican  Council  of  1870.  Christians 
should  be  taught,  it  is  said,  that  "The  authority  of  the 
pope  is  superior  to  that  of  the  universal  church  and 
council,  and  his  statutes  must  be  humbly  obeyed" ;  that 
"The  pope  cannot  err  in  those  things  which  are  of 
faith  and  necessary  to  salvation'* ;  and  that  "They  who 
speak  slightingly  of  the  honor  and  authority  of  the 
pope  are  guilty  of  blasphemy."  Nothing  could  well 
be  more  extreme  than  this.  Where  such  a  notion  pre- 
vailed, of  course  the  criticism  of  indulgences  or  of  any 
other  practice  approved  by  the  pope  must  be  regarded 
as  illegitimate,  and  Luther's  protestations  of  devotion 
to  the  welfare  of  the  church  could  avail  him  little. 

While  hostility  was  steadily  growing  in  many  quar- 
ters, the  Wittenberg  students  showed  their  sympathy 
with  their  favorite  professor  by  publicly  burning 
Tetzel's  theses  on  indulgences  in  the  market-place. 
Writing  to  his  friend  Lang  in  March,  1518,  Luther 
said: 

The  indulgence-sellers  are  thundering  mightily  against 
me  from  the  pulpit,  and  as  they  have  not  bad  enough 
names  to  call  me  by,  they  add  threats,  assuring  the  people 
that  I  shall  most  certainly  be  burned  within  a  fortnight, 
or  a  month  at  most.  They  are  also  publishing  counter- 
theses  until  I  fear  they  may  burst  with  the  immensity  of 
their  wrath.  If  by  chance  you  have  heard  about  the 
burning  of  Tetzel's  theses,  I  will  give  you  the  facts,  that 
you  may  not  be  misled  by  exaggerated  reports  such  as  are 
wont  to  get  abroad  in  a  case  like  this.  When  the  students 


104  MARTIN  LUTHER 

learned  that  a  man  had  come  from  Halle,  sent  by  Tetzel, 
the  author  of  the  theses,  being  deeply  disgusted  as  they 
are  at  the  old  sophistical  studies  and  exceedingly  devoted 
to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  perhaps  also  desiring  to  show 
their  partiality  to  me,  they  immediately  got  hold  of  him 
and  threatened  him  for  daring  to  bring  such  a  document 
here.  Buying  some  copies  and  seizing  others,  they  burned 
all  he  had,  to  the  number  of  eight  hundred,  having  pre- 
viously announced  that  those  who  wished  to  attend  the 
conflagration  and  funeral  of  Tetzel's  theses  should  gather 
in  the  market-place  at  two  o'clock.  All  this  they  did 
without  the  knowledge  of  the  prince,  senate,  rector,  or 
any  of  us.  The  grave  injury  done  the  man  by  our  sup- 
porters displeases  me  as  well  as  every  one  else.  I  ,am 
without  blame,  but  I  fear  the  whole  affair  will  be  laid  at 
my  door.  It  has  caused  much  talk,  especially  among' 
Tetzel's  adherents,  and  no  little  righteous  indignation. 
What  will  come  of  it  I  do  not  know,  except  that  my  posi- 
tion is  made  still  more  dangerous. 

A  little  later  he  wrote  his  old  teacher,  Trutvetter  of 
Erfurt  : 

I  wonder  you  can  believe  I  had  anything  to  do  with 
the  burning  of  Tetzel's  theses.  Do  you  think  that  I,  a 
monk  and  theologian,  have  so  lost  all  common  sense  as 
to  inflict  such  a  grave  injury  on  a  man  of  his  position  in 
a  place  not  belonging  to  me?  But  what  can  I  do  when 
everybody  believes  all  sorts  of  things  about  me?  Can  I 
stop  the  mouths  of  all  the  world  ?  Let  anybody  say,  hear, 
and  believe  anything  he  pleases,  I  will  do  whatever  the 
Lord  gives  me  to  do,  and,  God  willing,  never  will  I  be 
afraid,  or  venture  beyond  what  He  commands. 

Despite  the  storm  gathering  about  his  head,  Luther 
went  on  as  usual  with  his  regular  work,  paying  no 
attention  to  his  enemies'  attacks  and  interesting  himself 
in  university  affairs  as  if  nothing  uncommon  had  hap- 


M 


THE  GATHERING  STORM  105 

pened.  One  of  the  extraordinary  things  about  the  man 
was  the  way  he  could  detach  himself  from  the  conflict 
even  when  it  had  grown  hottest,  and  could  teach  and 
preach  and  write  as  if  all  were  serene.  Often  when  in 
the  thick  of  the  fight  he  would  produce  a  scriptural 
commentary  or  a  devotional  work  such  as  might  be  ex- 
pected to  come  only  from  the  pen  of  one  whose  whole 
life  was  spent  in  quiet  study  or  in  the  calm  of  religious 
meditation ;  and  this  even  after  he  had  developed  into 
one  of  the  most  active,  vigorous,  and  unresting  com- 
batants the  world  has  ever  seen. 

During  the  months  succeeding  the  posting  of  the 
theses,  he  said  little  in  public  about  the  matter  on 
everybody's  lips.  In  the  spring  he  published  a  German 
tract  on  indulgences  which  annoyed  the  Roman  au- 
thorities even  more  than  the  theses  because  addressed 
directly  to  the  populace.  At  the  request  of  his  bishop, 
he  promptly  stopped  its  sale,  and  also  withheld  an 
elaborate  commentary  he  had  been  preparing  on  the 
theses,  preferring,  as  he  said  in  dutiful  monastic 
phrase,  to  obey  rather  than  to  work  miracles,  even  if 
he  could.  The  bishop  saw,  however,  that  the  hope  of 
putting  an  end  to  the  agitation  by  keeping  Luther  quiet 
was  vain,  and  soon  withdrew  his  request  and  left  the 
Wittenberg  professor  his  freedom  of  action. 

In  May  the  triennial  convention  of  the  Augustinian 
order  in  Germany  met  at  Heidelberg,  and  Luther  went 
to  report  upon  his  administration  as  district-vicar  and 
turn  over  his  office  to  a  successor.  Friends  advised 
him  not  to  go  for  fear  he  would  meet  with  trouble,  and 
the  elector  only  reluctantly  gave  him  permission  to 
make  the  journey,  writing  Staupitz:  "Doctor  Martin 
Luther  having  been  summoned  by  you  and  other  offi- 
cials of  the  Augustinian  order  to  a  convention  at 
Heidelberg  is  ready  to  obey  and  attend  the  meeting, 


io6  MARTIN  LUTHER 

though  we  do  not  willingly  grant  him  leave  to  be  ab- 
sent from  the  university.  As  you  once  informed  us 
you  would  make  of  the  man  a  doctor  of  our  own  with 
whom  we  should  yet  be  very  much  pleased,  we  do  not 
like  to  have  him  long  away  from  his  lectures,  and  we 
hope  you  will  see  to  it  that  he  returns  to  us  without 
delay." 

Luther  himself  had  no  other  thought  than  to  attend, 
as  his  office  required  him  to  do,  and  he  left  Wittenberg 
the  middle  of  April,  traveling  on  foot  by  way  of  Co- 
burg  and  Wurzburg.  Writing  to  Spalatin  en  route,  he 
said: 

I  think  you  have  heard  from  our  Pfeffinger  all  we 
talked  about  when  I  met  him  in  the  village  of  Judenbach. 
It  was  a  comfort  to  me,  among  other  things,  to  have  the 
chance  of  making  the  rich  man  poorer  by  a  few  coins. 
For  you  know  how  I  like  to  incommode  the  rich,  if  in 
any  way  I  conveniently  can,  especially  if  they  are  friends. 
He  took  pains  to  pay  for  the  dinner  even  of  two  unknown 
companions,  at  the  cost  for  all  of  us  of  ten  groschen. 
Even  now,  if  I  can,  I  shall  get  the  treasurer  of  our  illus- 
trious prince  here  in  Coburg  to  pay  our  expenses;  but  if 
he  is  unwilling,  we  live  nevertheless  at  the  prince's  cost. 
.  .  .  All  is  going  well,  thanks  be  to  God !  though  I  must 
confess  that  I  sinned  in  traveling  on  foot.  The  sin,  to  be 
sure,  needs  no  letters  of  indulgence,  for  my  contrition  is 
perfect,  and  fullest  satisfaction  has  already  been  imposed 
upon  me.  I  am  exceedingly  fatigued,  and  empty  wagons 
are  never  to  be  found ;  so  I  am  crushed,  I  repent,  I  render 
satisfaction  enough  and  to  spare. 

Although  he  traveled  at  his  own  expense,  the  frugal 
elector  provided  an  escort  who  went  most  of  the  way 
with  him.  Luther  wished  to  reward  the  man  for  his 
faithfulness,  but  being  too  poor  to  do  so  adequately, 
took  pains  to  write  Spalatin  from  Wurzburg,  request- 


From  a  copy  painted  by  E.  A.  Schmidt 
FREDERICK  THE  WISE 

After  the  portrait  by  Lucas  Cranach  in  the  Grand  Ducal 
Museum  at  Weimar 


THE  GATHERING  STORM  107 

ing  him  to  see  that  something  additional  was  given  him 
on  his  return  home.  A  small  matter  this,  but  it  illus- 
trates his  thoughtfulness  for  others.  He  was  generous 
to  a  fault,  and  when,  as  frequently  happened,  he  had 
nothing  left  to  give,  he  would  go  to  any  amount  of 
trouble  and  write  numberless  appeals  for  those  in  need. 

Letters  of  introduction  from  the  elector,  couched  in 
the  warmest  terms,  were  given  our  traveler,  addressed 
to  prominent  persons  along  the  route,  and  he  was 
everywhere  received  hospitably  and  with  marked  con- 
sideration. The  Bishop  of  Wurzburg,  a  man  of  hu- 
manistic sympathies,  went  out  of  his  way  to  do  him 
honor  and  afterward  wrote  Frederick,  urging  him  to 
stand  by  his  professor,  whatever  happened,  and  to 
allow  no  harm  to  come  to  him. 

The  trip  was  of  great  benefit  to  Luther.  He  got 
away  from  the  anxiety  and  solicitude  of  the  Witten- 
berg circle,  and  found  himself  treated  with  respect  and 
his  conduct  applauded  by  men  of  position  and  influence 
both  within  and  without  his  order.  The  fears  of  his 
own  prior  were  not  shared  by  the  members  of  the  con- 
vention, and  he  could  count,  as  he  discovered,  on  the 
warm  support  of  many  of  his  brethren.  He  was  ap- 
pointed to  conduct  the  disputation  held  as  usual  on 
such  occasions,  and  carefully  avoiding  the  subject  of 
indulgences,  took  the  opportunity  to  expound  and 
defend  his  Pauline  and  Augustinian  theology,  to  the 
admiration  of  his  hearers.  One  of  them,  the  young 
Dominican  Martin  Bucer,  himself  later  a  reformer, 
describing  the  affair  in  a  letter  to  a  friend,  spoke  of 
Luther's  "wonderful  suavity  in  replying  and  incom- 
parable patience  in  listening/'  traits,  it  should  be  re- 
marked, not  always  observed  in  him.  The  same 
auditor  declared  enthusiastically  that  the  Wittenberg 
professor  agreed  in  all  things  with  Erasmus,  but  sur- 


io8  MARTIN  LUTHER 

passed  him  in  teaching  openly  and  freely  what  Eras- 
mus only  insinuated.  Though  not  altogether  correct, 
there  was  some  truth  in  this  opinion,  and  before  long 
it  was  shared  by  many  others,  to  the  great  annoyance 
of  the  eminent  humanist. 

Writing  to  Spalatin  of  his  Heidelberg  stay,  Luther 
said: 

The  most  illustrious  prince  Wolfgang,  Count  Pala- 
tine, with  Master  Jacob  Symler  and  the  court  chamber- 
lain Hazius,  treated  me  uncommonly  well.  For  he  enter- 
tained me  with  Father  Staupitz  and  our  Lang,  now 
district-vicar,  and  we  had  a  good  time  together,  con- 
versing pleasantly  and  agreeably,  eating  and  drinking,  and 
viewing  all  the  treasures  of  the  little  chapel,  as  also  the 
instruments  of  war,  and  most  of  the  beauties  of  the  truly 
royal  and  remarkable  castle.  Master  Jacob  could  not  say 
enough  about  the  letters  of  our  prince,  exclaiming  in  his 
Neckar  dialect,  "You  have,  by  God,  a  splendid  recom- 
mendation." Nothing  was  lacking  which  kindness  could 
suggest.  The  doctors  also  heard  my  disputation  with 
pleasure,  and  debated  with  me  so  modestly  that  they  made 
themselves  very  dear  to  me.  For  although  the  theology 
seemed  strange  to  them,  they  discussed  it  acutely  and 
skilfully,  with  the  exception  of  the  fifth  and  youngest 
doctor,  who  drew  a  laugh  from  everybody  when  he  said, 
"If  the  peasants  were  to  hear  such  things,  they  would 
surely  stone  you  to  death." 

Luther  was  particularly  pleased  with  the  enthusias- 
tic support  of  a  number  of  the  younger  monks  and 
began  to  realize  that  the  hope  of  reform  lay  in  the 
rising  generation  rather  than  in  those  grown  old  in  the 
traditional  system.  He  returned  home  greatly  cheered 
and  strengthened,  looking  better,  according  to  his 
friends,  than  he  had  for  a  long  time,  and  ready  to  take 
up  the  campaign  with  new  vigor.  The  effect  upon  his 


THE  GATHERING  STORM  109 

Wittenberg  acquaintances  and  colleagues  was  also 
marked.  They  began  to  be  proud  of  what  he  had  done 
as  they  saw  what  others  thought  of  him,  and  to  rally  to 
his  support  with  a  heartiness  hitherto  quite  lacking. 

The  circle  of  his  intimates  was  enlarged  before  the 
end  of  the  summer,  when  there  came  to  Wittenberg 
from  the  University  of  Tubingen  a  young  man,  scarcely 
more  than  a  boy,  who  was  to  be  his  most  valued  asso- 
ciate and  principal  helper  in  his  great  work.  Philip 
Melanchthon  was  a  grand-nephew  of  the  humanist  and 
Hebraist  Reuchlin,  and  one  of  the  most  precocious 
geniuses  of  that  precocious  age.  He  was  already  an 
accomplished  classical  scholar  and  a  humanist  of  con- 
siderable repute  when,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  he 
was  called  to  the  University  of  Wittenberg  to  become 
its  first  professor  of  Greek.  There  he  speedily  fell 
under  the  domination  of  Luther's  stalwart  personality 
and  threw  himself  into  his  cause  with  all  the  enthusi- 
asm of  youth.  Invaluable  services  he  performed  for 
the  new  faith,  and  though  not  always  fully  in  sym- 
pathy with  his  greater  colleague  or  duly  appreciative 
of  him,  for  the  most  part  he  proved  himself  a  most 
efficient  aide.  He  was  of  special  use  at  first  in  draw- 
ing the  attention  of  his  fellow-humanists  to  Luther  and 
his  work.  With  many  of  them  his  support  of  the  new 
movement  counted  for  a  great  deal,  and  tended  to  off- 
set in  some  degree  Luther's  oft-expressed  contempt 
for  human  reason  and  his  rough-and-ready  methods 
in  controversy.  One  of  the  greatest  scholars  and 
teachers  of  the  century,  Melanchthon  immensely  en- 
hanced the  fame  of  the  university,  and  his  class-room 
was  thronged  with  students  of  many  nationalities.  His 
title  of  Praeceptor  Germaniae  was  fairly  won,  for  he 
did  more  than  any  other  man  to  reform  the  educa- 
tional system  of  the  country. 


no  MARTIN  LUTHER 

Nothing  could  be  more  striking  than  the  contrast 
between  the  two  colleagues,  closely  associated  for  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  century — the  robust,  fearless  war- 
rior, man  of  action,  and  leader  of  men,  and  the  delicate, 
cautious,  almost  effeminate  scholar,  naturally  a  stu- 
dent and  recluse,  dragged  into  the  arena  of  conflict 
against  his  will,  and  never  quite  at  home  in  it.  Luther 
himself  draws  an  apt  comparison  in  the  following 
words :  "I  was  born  to  fight  with  mobs  and  devils,  and 
so  my  books  are  very  stormy  and  warlike.  I  must 
remove  trees  and  stumps,  cut  away  thorns  and  thickets, 
and  fill  up  quagmires.  I  am  the  rough  woodsman  who 
must  blaze  the  way  and  clear  the  path.  But  Master 
Philip  comes  along  gently  and  quietly;  builds  and 
plants,  sows  and  waters,  with  joy,  according  to  the 
gifts  God  has  richly  bestowed  upon  him." 

Luther's  lifelong  affection  for  Melanchthon  is  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  things  about  the  great  reformer. 
Older  by  fourteen  years,  and  of  far  more  massive  and 
heroic  mold,  he  yet  felt  an  admiration  for  the  younger 
man  which  he  \vas  never  tired  of  expressing.  "This 
little  Greek  surpasses  me  even  in  theology,"  he  wrote 
his  friend  Lang  in  1519,  and  similar  praise  was  con- 
tinually upon  his  lips.  It  speaks  more  for  his  personal 
affection,  and  the  simplicity  and  generosity  of  his  na- 
ture, than  for  his  penetration,  that  for  some  time  he 
regarded  Melanchthon  as  a  greater  man  than  himself 
and  thought  of  him  as  the  coming  prophet  for  whose 
work  he  was  only  preparing  the  way,  declaring  even 
as  late  as  1529  that  he  was  not  worthy  to  unloose  the 
latchet  of  his  shoe.  The  event  proved  his  mistake. 
He  had  gained  a  useful  lieutenant,  but  his  was  still  the 
commanding  figure,  and  he  remained  sole  leader  till 
the  end. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  CONFLICT  WITH  ROME 

WHILE  Luther  was  attending  quietly  to  his  duties 
as  professor  and  preacher,  the  Dominicans,  tra- 
ditional rivals  of  the  Augustinians,  and  old-time  watch- 
dogs of  the  orthodox  faith,  were  bestirring  themselves 
at  Rome,  endeavoring  to  induce  the  pope  to  proceed 
with  vigor  against  the  audacious  monk.  The  efforts  V 
of  the  Augustinian  general  to  silence  him  had  proved 
unavailing.  Luther  stood  so  well  with  Staupitz  and 
other  leading  Augustinians  in  Germany  that  the  ma- 
chinery of  the  order  could  not  easily  be  employed 
against  him.  An  ecclesiastical  procedure  therefore 
seemed  necessary,  both  the  financial  situation  and  the 
importunity  of  the  Dominicans  making  decisive  action 
of  some  sort  imperative. 

In  May  the  master  of  the  papal  palace,  Sylvester  \i 
Prierias,  was  called  upon  for  a  preliminary  report. 
Instead  of  presenting  a  dispassionate  statement  of  the 
case,  he  prepared  and  published  an  elaborate  scholastic 
reply  to  the  theses,  filled  with  bitter  personal  abuse  of  u 
Luther,  and  setting  forth  in  most  uncompromising 
fashion  the  high  papal  theory  already  defended  by 
Tetzel.  He  looked  upon  the  Wittenberg  professor 
with  great  contempt,  and  boasted  that  his  book,  evi- 
dently expected  to  crush  him  completely,  had  been 
written  in  three  days.  Referring  to  the  matter  long 
afterward  Luther  said : 


in 


ii2  MARTIN  LUTHER 

The  pope  never  caused  me  unhappiness  except  at  the 
beginning,  when  Sylvester  wrote  against  me  and  put  on 
the  title-page  of  his  book,  "Master  of  the  Sacred  Palace." 
Then  I  thought,  "Horrors!  will  it  come  to  this,  that  the 
affair  will  be  brought  before  the  pope?"  But  our  Lord 
God  gave  me  grace,  for  the  bacchant  wrote  such  poor 
stuff  I  could  only  laugh  at  it. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  book  was  not  in  the  least 
fitted  to  break  the  force  of  Luther's  strictures  upon 
indulgences,  and  could  carry  no  weight  except  with 
those  already  in  sympathy  with  the  extreme  views  of 
its  author.  The  pope  himself  is  reported  to  have  ex- 
pressed his  dissatisfaction  with  it  and  the  wish  that 
Prierias  had  taken  three  months  instead  of  three  days 
for  it. 

Not  to  be  outdone  by  his  Italian  antagonist,  Luther 
wrote  a  reply  in  two  days.  It  .was  a  brief  and  scornful 
document,  and  made  short  work  of  the  theory  of  papal 
absolutism.  It  closed  with  the  contemptuous  words: 

Behold,  my  reverend  Father,  I  have  composed  this 
reply  hastily  and  in  two  days,  for  the  things  brought  for- 
ward by  you  seemed  very  trifling.  I  have  therefore 
written  without  premeditation  whatever  came  into  my 
head.  If  you  wish  to  respond  again  take  care  to  bring 
your  Thomas  better  armed  into  the  arena,  lest  perchance 
you  may  next  time  be  received  less  mildly  than  now. 
For  I  have  controlled  myself  that  I  might  not  render  evil 
for  evil.  Farewell. 

A  few  days  later  he  wrote  Staupitz: 

If  Sylvester,  that  sylvan  sophist,  goes  on  and  provokes 
me  with  another  attack,  I  will  not  jest  again,  but  will 
give  my  brain  and  my  pen  free  course,  and  will  show 
him  there  are  those  in  Germany  who  understand  him  and 
his  Roman  wiles.  This  I  hope  may  soon  happen. 


CONFLICT  WITH  ROME  113 

About  the  same  time  he  published  the  long-delayed 
commentary  on  the  theses,  containing  many  statements 
more  radical  than  any  hitherto  made.  The  work  was 
dedicated  to  Leo  in  a  letter  couched  in  terms  of  humble 
submission.  "Wherefore,  blessed  Father,  prostrate  at 
the  feet  of  thy  Blessedness  I  offer  myself  with  all  I  am 
and  have.  Restore  to  life,  kill,  call,  recall,  approve, 
reprove,  as  it  shall  please  thee.  Thy  voice  I  will  recog- 
nize as  the  voice  of  Christ,  presiding  and  speaking  in 
thee." 

The  contrast  between  this  and  the  brusque  declara- 
tion in  the  body  of  the  work,  "I  am  not  moved  in  the 
least  by  what  pleases  or  displeases  the  supreme  pontiff ; 
he  is  a  man  like  others,"  need  not  cause  surprise.  In 
Luther's  situation  such  a  divided  state  of  mind  was 
entirely  natural,  at  one  moment  humbly  submissive,  at 
the  next,  when  thinking  only  of  his  own  opinions, 
boldly  defiant.  But  looking  back  in  later  years  upon 
these  early  days  of  conflict  he  deeply  regretted  what 
he  called  his  weakness  and  ignorance  in  showing  him- 
self submissive  to  the  pope  and  addressing  him  so 
bashfully  and  reverently. 

Whatever  the  writer's  state  of  mind,  the  dedicatory 
letter  counted  for  nothing  when  the  book  itself  de- 
nounced unsparingly  that  particular  doctrine  of  the 
papacy  which  was  coming  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  nec- 
essary article  of  faith.  The  conflict  had  begun  with  an 
attack  on  indulgences,  but  it  was  rapidly  developing 
into  a  war  against  papal  authority.  Not  that  Luther 
thought  as  yet  of  attacking  the  papacy, — he  was  still  a 
devout  and  loyal  subject  of  the  pope, — but,  like  many 
others,  he  was  strenuously  opposed  to  a  theory  destroy-  ^ 
ing  all  independence,  either  of  thought  or  action,  for 
the  church  as  a  whole.  Unfortunately,  the  theory  was 
shared  by  the  pope  himself  and  by  the  Roman  authori- 

8 


ii4  MARTIN  LUTHER 

ties,  and,  as  the  event  proved,  they  were  bound  to 
crush  any  one  openly  attacking  it. 

Anticipating  possible  excommunication,  Luther 
preached  in  the  late  spring,  and  published  some  weeks 
afterward,  a  sermon  on  the  ban,  declaring  that  exclu- 
sion from  the  church  could  harm  no  one  provided  he 
retained  his  Christian  faith  and  character,  for  the  true 
communion  of  the  church  is  spiritual  and  internal,  and 
no  one  can  be  put  without  its  pale  except  by  his  own 
act.  Referring  to  it  in  a  letter  to  his  old  friend  Wen- 
ceslaus  Link,  he  remarked : 

I  have  recently  preached  a  sermon  to  the  people  con- 
cerning the  force  of  excommunication.  In  it  I  attacked 
in  passing  the  tyranny  and  ignorance  of  that  most  sordid 
crowd  of  officials,  commissaries,  and  vicars.  All  wonder 
they  have  never  before  heard  such  things,  and  now  we 
are  all  waiting  to  see  what  farther  harm  will  come  to  me 
because  of  the  new  fire  I  have  kindled.  Thus  it  goes 
with  the  word  and  the  sign  of  the  truth,  when  it  is  con- 
tradicted. I  wanted  to  take  up  the  subject  in  a  public 
disputation,  but  the  report  of  it  got  abroad  and  so  troub- 
led many  great  people  that  my  superior,  the  Bishop  of 
Brandenburg,  sent  a  messenger  requesting  me  to  post- 
pone the  debate.  This  I  did,  and  still  do,  especially  since 
my  friends  also  advise  it.  See  what  a  monster  I  am, 
whose  very  attempts  are  intolerable ! 

The  sermon  made  him  many  enemies  particularly  in 
the  ruling  classes.  It  was  widely  felt  that  he  was 
undermining  the  safeguards  of  society.  Even  the  Em- 
peror Maximilian,  usually  tolerant  enough,  although 
he  had  recently  told  Frederick's  counselor  Pfeffinger 
that  Luther's  theses  were  not  to  be  despised  and  the 
elector  would  better  take  good  care  of  him,  for  he 
might  some  day  be  useful,  now  wrote  the  pope  urging 


CONFLICT  WITH  ROME  115 

'  him  to  silence  the  dangerous  monk  before  he  did  worse 
damage. 

In  September,  Spalatin,  who  was  at  the  Diet  of 
Augsburg  in  attendance  upon  the  elector,  wrote 
Luther : 

I  cannot  tell  you  how  much  harm  your  work  concern- 
ing the  ban  has  done  you,  and  what  hatred  it  seems  to 
have  caused.  I  greatly  wonder  it  should  have  been  sent 
here,  all  the  more  because  there  was  subjoined  to  it  a 
most  bitter  epigram  against  Roman  avarice— I  speak  of 
my  own  knowledge.  When  this  reached  here  it  was  put 
into  the  hands  of  both  the  apostolic  legates,  and  I  fear 
has  been  transmitted  to  Rome  to  your  great  detriment. 
But  God  will  be  present  to  aid  his  own.  Nevertheless, 
have  a  care  that  you  do  not  stir  up  the  hornets  too  much 
by  discourse,  debate,  and  published  writings. 

Formal  proceedings  against  Luther  were  finally  set 
on  foot  at  the  papal  court,  and  on  the  seventh  of 
August  he  received  an  imperative  summons  to  appear 
in  Rome  within  sixty  days  to  answer  the  charge  of 
heresy.  The  situation  was  now  becoming  serious.  It 
was  quite  evident  he  could  not  expect  even  justice  in 
Rome.  The  trial  must  prove  a  farce,  and  inevitably 
result  in  his  condemnation.  Indeed,  one  of  the  three 
judges  appointed  to  try  his  case  was  his  antagonist  */• 
Prierias.  Luther  realized  the  gravity  of  the  situation 
and  at  once  wrote  as  follows  to  Spalatin : 

Greeting.  Your  good  offices,  my  Spalatin,  I  am  now  in 
especial  need  of,  as  for  that  matter  the  honor  of  almost 
our  whole  university  is  too.  What  I  ask  is  this,  that 
you  labor  with  the  most  illustrious  Prince  and  Doctor 
Pfeffinger  to  have  our  Prince  and  His  Imperial  Majesty 
secure  from  the  supreme  Pontiff  my  remission  or  the 
transfer  of  my  case  to  Germany,  as  I  have  written  our 
Prince.  For  you  see  how  craftily  and  maliciously  the 


n6  MARTIN  LUTHER 

Dominicans,  my  murderers,  work  for  my  destruction.  I 
have  written  to  the  same  effect  to  Lord  Pfeffinger  that  by 
his  own  good  offices  and  those  of  his  friends  this  favor 
may  be  secured  from  his  Imperial  Majesty  and  the  Prince. 
It  is  necessary  to  act  quickly.  They  have  given  me  very 
little  time,  as  you  will  see  from  this  Lernsean  citation, 
with  its  hydras  and  monsters.  Therefore  if  you  love  me 
and  hate  iniquity,  you  will  see  to  it  that  the  counsel  and 
aid  of  the  Prince  are  sought  at  once,  and  will  inform  me, 
or  rather  our  reverend  Father  Vicar,  John  Staupitz,  who 
is  perhaps  already  with  you  at  Augsburg,  or  will  be  soon. 
For  he  is  staying  at  Salzburg  and  has  promised  to  be  at 
Nuremberg  for  the  Feast  of  the  Assumption.  Finally,  I 
beg  you  not  to  be  troubled  or  distressed  about  me.  The 
Lord  with  the  temptation  will  provide  a  way  of  escape. 

Again  a  fortnight  later,  he  wrote : 

I  do  not  yet  see  how  I  can  escape  the  threatened  judg- 
ment unless  the  Prince  comes  to  my  aid.  On  the  other 
hand,  I  should  much  rather  remain  under  perpetual  cen- 
sure than  have  the  Prince  gain  an  evil  name  on  my  ac- 
count. Believe,  therefore,  that  as  I  offered  myself  before 
I  am  still  ready,  and  persuade  any  others  you  think  best 
to  believe  the  same.  I  will  never  be  a  heretic.  I  may  err 
in  disputation,  but  I  wish  to  assert  nothing,  nor  hereafter 
to  be  taken  captive  by  the  opinions  of  men.  It  seems 
advisable  to  our  learned  and  wise  friends  that  I  should 
ask  from  our  Prince  Frederick  a  safe-conduct,  as  it  is 
called,  through  his  dominions.  When  he  refuses  it,  as  I 
know  he  will,  I  shall  have  an  excellent  excuse,  so  they 
say,  for  not  going  to  Rome.  If  therefore  you  are  willing 
and  will  procure  from  the  most  illustrious  Prince  in  my 
name  a  written  reply,  refusing  me  a  safe-conduct  and 
leaving  me  to  go  if  I  wish  at  my  own  risk,  you  will  best 
serve  me. 

In  a  letter  written  about  the  same  time  to  his  su- 
perior Staupitz,  he  said :  "See  how  insidiously  I  am 


CONFLICT  WITH  ROME  117 

attacked.  Everywhere  I  am  hedged  about  with  thorns ; 
but  Christ  lives  and  reigns  yesterday,  and  to-day,  and 
forever.  .  .  .  Pray  for  me  that  in  this  time  of  tempta- 
tion I  be  not  too  joyful  and  too  confident."  A  very 
human  touch  this  last!  Joy  in  battle  he  always  felt, 
and  was  never  so  happy  as  when  in  the  midst  of  the 
fray. 

Meanwhile,  moved  perhaps  by  Luther's  sermon  on 
the  ban,  and  by  reports  of  the  growing  radicalism  of 
his  utterances,  the  pope  decided  not  to  wait  until  the 
sixty  days  were  gone,  but  to  have  him  arrested  at  once 
and  held  for  trial,  and  the  elector  was  called  upon  to 
turn  him  over  to  Cardinal  Cajetan,  the  papal  legate  at 
the  Diet  of  Augsburg.  This  Frederick  was  unwilling 
to  do.  Though  he  disclaimed  all  sympathy  with  here- 
tics and  heresy,  he  was  yet  determined  that  his  most 
famous  professor,  the  chief  ornament  of  his  university, 
should  enjoy  fair  play.  He  therefore  endeavored  to 
have  his  case  transferred  to  Germany,  where  there  was 
more  likelihood  of  securing  justice.  His  support  was 
of  incalculable  benefit  to  Luther.  Without  it  he  would 
have  been  destroyed  at  the  very  beginning,  before  his 
great  reforming  work  was  fairly  under  way.  Frederick 
was  the  most  highly  respected  and  influential  prince  in 
Germany,  and  the  pope,  particularly  just  at  this  junc- 
ture, could  ill  afford  to  offend  him.  The  Emperor 
Maximilian  was  endeavoring  to  secure  the  imperial 
succession  for  his  grandson  Charles,  but  Leo,  foresee- 
ing that  his  own  power  would  be  greatly  curtailed  if 
the  King  of  Spain,  already  possessed  of  large  territory 
in  Italy,  should  also  become  Emperor  of  Germany, 
supported  the  candidature  of  Francis  I  of  France  as 
the  lesser  of  two  evils.  In  these  circumstances  it  was 
of  the  utmost  importance  to  remain  on  friendly 
terms  with  so  influential  an  elector  as  Frederick.  He 


n8  MARTIN  LUTHER 

therefore  yielded  so  far  at  least  as  to  commission  Caje- 
tan,  one  of  the  leading  theologians  of  the  day,  to  hear 
Luther's  case  at  Augsburg  instead  of  arresting  him 
and  sending  him  to  Rome  unheard. 

Luther  was  accordingly  directed  by  the  elector  to 
appear  at  Augsburg  and  answer  for  himself  before  the 
legate.  This  was  not  what  he  had  wished.  He  had 
hoped  for  a  trial  before  some  German  tribunal,  not 
already  prejudiced  against  him,  and  his  friends  urged 
him  not  to  go,  warning  him  that  the  whole  thing  was  a 
ruse  and  he  would  certainly  be  arrested  and  forfeit  his 
life.  But  he  felt  in  duty  bound  to  obey  the  elector's 
mandate,  and,  though  he  was  far  from  well,  made  the 
journey  on  foot,  arriving  in  Augsburg  on  the  seventh 
of  October,  and  putting  up  in  the  Carmelite  monastery 
of  St.  Anne,  the  prior  of  which  was  a  former  Witten- 
berg student.  His  mood  during  the  journey  is  shown 
by  the  following  passage  in  a  letter  written  from 
Nuremberg :  "I  have  found  some  men  so  pusillanimous 
in  my  cause  that  they  have  even  undertaken  to  tempt 
me  not  to  go  to  Augsburg.  But  I  continue  firm.  The 
will  of  the  Lord  be  done.  Even  at  Augsburg,  even  in 
the  midst  of  his  enemies,  Jesus  Christ  reigns.  Let 
Christ  live,  let  Martin  die,  and  every  sinner."  Years 
afterward  he  remarked  that  he  saw  only  the  stake  be- 
fore him  when  he  set  out  from  Wittenberg,  and  was 
troubled  to  think  what  a  disgrace  he  would  be  to  his 
dear  parents. 

In  Augsburg  he  was  warmly  received  by  some  of  the 
leading  men  of  the  town  and  was  entertained  at  dinner 
by  the  city  councilor  Conrad  Peutinger,  a  humanist 
of  patrician  birth,  whose  fame  among  his  brother 
humanists  was  great  and  whose  library  was  one  of  the 
wonders  of  the  age.  Augsburg,  an  important  imperial 
city,  was  then  at  the  height  of  its  prosperity.  It  was 


raraw*?«e£ 


m^ms^mmsk 

•*••'*-••     \a  *    -  '.-,_lr:rr 

-v*:-^^g  "^ 


EXTERIOR    OF   THE    CATHEDRAL   AT    AUGSBTRi; 


CLOISTERS    OF    THE    CATHEDRAL    AT    AUGSBURG 


CONFLICT  WITH  ROME  119 

the  home  of  the  Fuggers,  the  principal  financial  mag- 
nates of  the  day,  the  bankers  of  emperors  and  popes, 
and  the  fiscal  agents  in  charge  of  all  the  great  indul- 
gence campaigns  of  that  age.  According  to  tradition 
the  papal  legate  made  the  palatial  residence  of  Jacob 
Fugger,  the  head  of  the  house,  his  stopping-place,  and 
Luther  appeared  before  him  there. 

A  few  days  after  his  arrival  he  wrote  his  colleague 
Melanchthon : 

Nothing  new  or  wonderful  is  happening  here,  except 
that  the  city  is  full  of  my  name,  and  everybody  desires  to 
see  the  Herostratus  who  has  kindled  so  great  a  fire.  Play 
the  man  as  you  are  doing,  and  teach  the  young  rightly. 
I  am  going  to  be  sacrificed  for  you  and  them,  if  it  please 
the  Lord.  I  prefer  to  perish  and  even  to  lose  forever  your 
most  delightful  companionship— a  thing  most  grievous 
to  me— rather  than  revoke  what  I  have  rightly  said,  and 
be  an  occasion  of  loss  to  the  best  studies.  With  these 
most  ignorant  and  bitter  enemies  of  literature  and  educa- 
tion Italy  has  fallen  into  palpable  Egyptian  darkness.  For 
they  are  all  ignorant  of  Christ  and  his  affairs.  These 
men,  nevertheless,  we  have  as  lords  and  masters  in  faith 
and  practice. 

The  impatience  of  Roman  rule  thus  expressed  is 
very  significant.  It  was  already  wide-spread  in  Ger- 
many, and  Luther's  awakening  sense  of  the  situation 
was  prophetic  of  what  he  was  yet  to  do  for  his  native 
land.  At  the  Diet  of  Augsburg,  which  had  closed 
shortly  before  he  arrived  in  the  city,  hostility  to  the 
papacy  found  most  emphatic  utterance.  It  was  no  new 
thing.  For  many  generations  the  avarice  of  the 
Roman  curia  had  provoked  the  complaints  of  Christen- 
dom. In  all  sorts  of  ways,  and  by  the  most  devious 
paths,  money  flowed  to  Rome,  and  the  wealth  of  the 
nations  was  drained  for  its  support.  Sovereign  of  the 


120  MARTIN  LUTHER 

states  of  the  church,  a  small  territory  able  at  best  to 
sustain  only  a  modest  court,  the  pope  was  at  the  same 
time  a  world  ruler  and  kept  up  the  pomp  and  circum- 
stance of  the  greatest  of  potentates.  To  Christendom 
at  large  he  must  look  for  funds  to  meet  the  needs  of 
his  government  and  of  the  thousands  of  retainers 
thronging  his  court.  It  was  inevitable  that  the  venera- 
tion naturally  felt  toward  the  head  of  the  church 
should  be  tempered  with  impatience  at  a  foreign 
power  whose  maintenance  heavily  taxed  the  peoples  of 
Europe.  No  country  felt  the  burden  more  than 
Germany.  With  its  historic  devotion  to  the  holy  see, 
with  its  numerous  and  wealthy  ecclesiastical  states, 
with  the  conflicting  interests  of  its  various  principali- 
ties, and  with  the  weakness  of  its  central  government, 
making  common  action  impossible,  it  offered  abundant 
opportunities  for  spoliation. 

It  had  long  been  growing  clear  to  German  princes 
and  people  that  they  were  being  exploited  by  a  race 
which  despised  them  for  their  very  submission,  and 
national  pride  was  beginning  to  take  fire  everywhere. 
At  the  Diet  of  1510  a  long  and  ominous  list  of  griev- 
ances against  the  papacy  was  formulated,  and  at  Augs- 
burg, in  1518,  the  bitterness  was  equally  marked.  The 
old  plea  that  money  was  needed  for  the  defense  of 
Christendom  against  the  Turks  was  urged  both  by 
emperor  and  pope,  but  the  Diet  was  obdurate,  believing 
that  so  far  at  least  as  the  pope  was  concerned  the  plea 
was  only  a  pretext,  and  the  money  would  go  to  line  the 
pockets  of  his  relatives  and  retainers.  In  these  circum- 
stances it  was  hardly  to  be  expected  that  Luther  should 
find  the  papal  legate  in  particularly  good  humor,  or 
disposed  to  treat  him  with  leniency.  It  would  seem  as 
if  the  temper  of  the  Diet  might  have  warned  him  of 
the  necessity  of  handling  the  case  of  the  Wittenberg 


CONFLICT  WITH  ROME  121 

professor  with  circumspection;  but  he  evidently  did 
not  realize  the  gravity  of  the  situation  and  did  not 
dream,  as,  for  that  matter,  Luther  did  not,  that  the 
affair  would  yet  assume  national  importance. 

Luther's  interviews  with  him  proved  exceedingly 
unsatisfactory.  The  cardinal  refused  to  enter  into  the 
merits  of  the  case,  insisting  quite  in  the  spirit  of 
Prierias  and  Tetzel  that  it  was  the  monk's  duty  to 
submit  unquestioningly  to  the  authority  of  the  pope 
and  to  recant  unconditionally.  This  Luther  naturally 
refused  to  do,  and  when  he  undertook  to  defend  his 
positions,  a  protracted  and  heated  discussion  ensued, 
which  served  .only  to  confirm  him  in  his  own  views  and 
to  convince  the  legate  of  his  obduracy  and  heresy.  The 
remark  attributed  to  Cajetan  by  an  early  biographer 
of  Luther  is  probably  apocryphal:  "I  do  not  wish  to 
talk  further  with  this  beast,  for  he  has  deep  eyes,  and 
his  head  is  full  of  amazing  speculations" ;  but  his  im- 
pression of  the  Wittenberg  professor  was  very  unfa- 
vorable, as  is  shown  by  his  account  of  the  affair  sent  to 
the  Elector  Frederick,  and  Luther's  opinion  of  the 
cardinal  is  recorded  in  a  letter  written  from  Augsburg 
to  his  colleague  Carlstadt.  "He  is  perhaps  a  famous 
Thomist,  but  he  is  an  obscure  and  ignorant  theologian 
and  Christian,  and  therefore  as  well  fitted  to  manage 
this  affair  as  an  ass  to  play  the  harp."  Long  after- 
ward Luther  declared  his  break  with  the  pope  might 
have  been  avoided  had  a  more  conciliatory  policy  been 
adopted  by  the  legate,  and  a  papal  ambassador  is  re- 
ported to  have  accused  Cajetan  of  ruining  the  cause  by 
using  violence  instead  of  diplomacy.  But  neither  re- 
mark does  justice  to  the  fundamental  difference  of 
principle  between  Luther  and  the  papacy— a  difference 
fully  apparent  only  some  time  later,  but  already  realized 
by  Cajetan.  As  a  convinced  and  consistent  supporter 


122  MARTIN  LUTHER 

of  the  theory  of  papal  absolutism  he  really  followed 
the  only  course  possible  in  the  circumstances  when  he 
demanded  unconditional  submission. 

Successive  interviews  having  proved  quite  futile, 
Luther  was  finally  dismissed  with  the  command  not  to 
appear  again  until  he  was  prepared  to  recant.  In  re- 
sponse to  the  request  of  his  superior  Staupitz,  and  his 
boyhood  friend  Wenceslaus  Link,  whom  Cajetan  in- 
duced to  labor  with  the  refractory  monk,  he  then  wrote 
the  cardinal  a  letter  of  apology: 

Most  reverend  Father  in  Christ,  I  confess,  as  I  have 
confessed  before,  that  I  was  certainly  too  indiscreet,  as 
they  say,  and  too  bitter  and  irreverent  toward  the  name 
of  the  supreme  Pontiff.  And  although  I  was  most 
strongly  provoked  to  this  irreverence,  nevertheless  I  now 
know  I  ought  to  have  handled  the  case  more  modestly, 
humbly,  and  reverently,  and  not  answered  a  fool  accord- 
ing to  his  folly.  I  am  most  sincerely  sorry  and  beg  par- 
don, and  1  will  make  it  known  to  the  people  from  the 
pulpit,  whenever  I  have  opportunity,  as  I  have  already 
often  done,  and  will  henceforth  take  care  to  act  and 
speak  differently  by  the  mercy  of  God.  I  also  promise 
most  willingly  not  to  deal  with  the  subject  of  indulgences, 
and  to  be  silent  when  the  present  affair  is  ended,  provided 
similar  speech  or  silence  be  imposed  also  on  those  who 
incited  me  to  this  tragedy. 

But  at  the  same  time  he  again  refused  to  recant,  de- 
claring : 

So  far  as  concerns  the  truth  of  my  opinions  I  would 
most  gladly  revoke  everything  in  accordance  with  your 
command  and  advice  as  well  as  my  vicar's,  if  my  con- 
science in  any  way  permitted  it.  For  I  know  I  ought 
to  be  persuaded  by  no  precept,  counsel,  or  kindness  to 
say  or  do  anything  against  my  conscience. 

Nothing  came  of  the  letter,  and  when  Staupitz  found 


From  the  painting  by  Christopher  Ainberger 


CONRAD  PEUTINGER.  THE  AUGSBURG  HUMANIST 


CONFLICT  WITH  ROME  123 

him  fully  determined  not  to  yield  he  absolved  him  from 
his  vow  of  monastic  obedience,  whether  for  Luther's 
sake,  or  to  relieve  himself  and  the  Augustinian  order 
from  responsibility  for  the  dangerous  monk,  is  not 
clear.  After  waiting  a  few  days  for  further  develop- 
ments, Luther  was  smuggled  out  of  the  city  by  his  \y 
friends,  who  had  heard  rumors  of  his  impending  ar- 
rest, and  made  his  way  hurriedly  back  to  Wittenberg 
on  horseback.  At  the  close  of  the  first  day's  ride  of 
nearly  forty  miles,  completely  exhausted  by  the  un- 
accustomed exercise,  he  tumbled  half  dead  on  the  floor 
of  the  stable.  As  he  later  said,  he  rode  "without 
trousers,  boots,  spurs,  or  sword,"  to  the  great  amuse- 
ment of  Count  Albert  of  Mans f eld,  whom  he  visited 
at  Grafenthal  on  his  way  home.  He  arrived  at  Wit- 
tenberg on  the  last  day  of  October  "full  of  joy  and 
peace,"  as  he  wrote  Spalatin  the  same  day,  "so  that  I 
wonder  this  trial  of  mine  should  seem  so  great  a  thing 
to  many  great  men."  He  left  behind  him  in  Augsburg 
another  letter  to  the  cardinal  and  an  appeal  duly  signed 
and  executed  from  the  pope-ill-informed  to  the  pope- 
to-be-better-informed,  demanding  that  the  process 
against  him  be  begun  anew  and  unprejudiced  judges 
be  substituted  for  those  already  named. 

That  the  seriousness  of  the  situation  did  not  wholly 
absorb  him,  or  dampen  the  buoyancy  of  his  spirits,  is 
shown  by  the  following  playful  note  to  Melanchthon, 
written  shortly  after  his  return  home  apropos  cf  a 
dinner  he  gave  as  dean  of  the  theological  faculty  to  a 
newly  made  doctor. 

To  Philip  Melanchthon,  Schwarzerd,  Greek,  Latin, 
Hebrew,  German,  never  barbarian.  Greeting.  To-day 
you  despised  both  me  and  the  new  doctor,  so-called.  May 
the  Muse  and  Apollo  forgive  you  for  it.  Although  it 
was  not  altogether  my  affair,  I  have  pardoned  you.  But 


124  MARTIN  LUTHER 

unless  you  show  yourself  punctually  to  Dr.  Andrew  Carl- 
stadt  and  Licentiate  Amsdorf,and  especially  to  the  Rector, 
not  even  Greek  will  be  able  to  excuse  you,  much  less  the 
little  brother  Martin,  as  Cajetan  calls  me.  The  new 
doctor  thinks,  as  he  says  jestingly,  that  as  a  barbarian  he 
is  held  in  contempt  by  a  Greek.  Take  care  what  you  do, 
for  I  have  promised  you  will  surely  come  this  time.  You 
will  do  me  a  kindness  if  you  come,  but  I  should  very 
much  like  to  have  you  bring  with  you  Dr.  Veit  and  John 
Schwertfeger,  for  this  evening  I  shall  be  host  to  my 
best  and  dearest  friends.  Use  your  influence  and  my 
command,  if  the  little  brother  counts  for  anything,  that 
they  may  come  with  you.  Farewell. 

Little  brother  Martin  Eleutherius. 

Within  a  week  after  the  dinner,  on  November  28, 
expecting  speedy  condemnation  from  Rome,  he  drew 
up  another  formal  appeal,  this  time  from  the  pope  to  a 
general  council.  The  appeal  was  a  master  stroke  of 
policy.  It  arrayed  upon  his  side  opponents  of  papal 
absolutism  whatever  their  attitude  toward  indulgences. 
From  time  immemorial  a  general  council  had  been  re- 
garded as  supreme  in  the  church,  the  only  final  and  in- 
fallible authority  in  faith  and  practice.  But  during 
the  later  Middle  Ages  papal  absolutism  had  steadily 
grown,  and  in  the  early  fifteenth  century,  in  the 
struggle  between  the  papacy  and  the  great  reforming 
councils,  the  former  had  won  a  complete  victory.  Dis- 
credited as  the  conciliar  party  was  in  Luther's  time,  the 
general  council  still  remained  the  one  hope  of  all 
deprecating  the  unlimited  power  of  the  pope.  To  ap- 
peal from  pope  to  council  was  to  put  oneself  on  the 
side  of  multitudes  of  devout  Catholics  of  the  highest 
standing,  particularly  in  Germany  and  France;  and 
inevitably  Luther's  case  at  once  assumed  in  many  eyes 
the  aspect  of  a  struggle  between  the  newer  papal  claims 


CONFLICT  WITH  ROME  125 

and  the  older  principle  of  representative  government. 
As  a  result,  the  particular  reform  interesting  Luther 
was  widely  lost  sight  of  in  the  larger  issue,  and  the 
bold~  professor  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  champion  of 
the  rights  of  the  church  against  the  usurpations  of  the 
pope.  In  such  a  struggle,  loyal  and  orthodox  Catholics 
were  as  likely  to  be  with  him  as  against  him.  His 
appeal  served  to  rally  and  consolidate  forces  of  Cath- 
olic devotion  long  existent,  but  for  some  time  past 
without  the  power  of  effective  and  concerted  expres- 
sion. 

Greatly  annoyed  at  the  outcome  of  the  Augsburg 
interview,  Cajetan  wrote  a  sharp  letter  to  Frederick, 
assuring  him  Luther's  teachings  were  heretical,  re- 
minding him  of  his  duty  as  a  loyal  son  of  the  church, 
and  calling  upon  him  to  deliver  the  refractory  profes- 
sor to  the  Roman  authorities  or  expel  him  from  his 
dominions.  The  elector  referred  the  letter  to  Luther, 
who  immediately  returned  it,  with  his  own  version  of 
the  Augsburg  interview,  and  with  the  request  that  he 
be  not  sent  to  Rome,  where  his  life  would  scarcely  be 
safe  for  an  instant.  He  offered  to  leave  Saxony,  if  (/ 
Frederick  felt  embarrassed  by  his  presence,  but  sug- 
gested that  the  cardinal  be  told  to  put  his  proofs  in 
writing  and  not  content  himself  with  merely  denounc- 
ing Brother  Martin  as  a  heretic.  In  an  admirably 
firm  and  temperate  reply  to  Cajetan,  the  elector 
followed  Luther's  suggestion,  writing  in  part  as  fol- 
lows: 

There  are  many  scholars  in  our  principality,  in  the 
university  and  elsewhere,  from  whom  we  have  not  yet 
been  able  to  learn  with  certainty  that  Martin's  teaching  is 
impious,  unchristian,  and  heretical,  though  there  are  some 
who  have  opposed  him  on  private  grounds,  because  his 
learning  has  injured  them  pecuniarily ;  but  even  they  have 


126  MARTIN  LUTHER 

as  yet  proved  nothing  against  him.  For  if  we  had  ade- 
quate evidence  that  Martin's  teaching  were  impious  and 
unsettling,  we  should  ourselves  know  by  Almighty  God's 
help  and  grace  what  to  do  without  being  exhorted  and 
admonished.  For  we  are  determined  in  this  whole  affair 
to  act  as  becomes  a  Christian  prince  who  desires  to  con- 
sult both  his  honor  and  his  conscience  with  the  aid  of 
God.  .  .  .  Since  Martin  offers  to  submit  his  case  to  the 
judgment  of  certain  universities,  and  to  stand  trial  in 
some  safe  place,  and  to  surrender  himself  obediently  for 
instruction  and  guidance,  when  his  cause  has  been  heard, 
we  think  he  ought  to  be  allowed  to  do  so,  or  at  least  that 
his  errors  should  be  indicated  in  writing.  This  we  also 
ask,  that  we  may  know  on  what  ground  he  is  to  be  re- 
garded as  heretical,  and  may  be  able  to  proceed  accord- 
ingly. For  we  think  that  when  he  is  not  yet  convicted,  he 
ought  not  to  be  reputed  and  written  down  a  heretic. 
Finally  we  would  not  willingly  permit  ourselves  to  be 
drawn  into  error  or  to  be  counted  disobedient  by  the  holy 
apostolic  see. 

Opposition  to  the  papal  absolutism  of  the  Roman 
party,  which  made  the  mere  word  of  the  pope  sufficient 
to  determine  heresy,  here  speaks  in  decided  though 
respectful  terms.  Against  such  absolutism  Frederick 
could  evidently  be  counted  on  to  stand  firm,  whatever 
his  views  as  to  the  right  or  wrong  of  his  famous  pro- 
fessor's reforming  efforts. 

Luther  was  delighted  with  the  elector's  reply,  as  he 
might  well  be.  With  such  a  prince  to  see  he  had  fair 
play,  he  could  feel  the  ground  firm  beneath  his  feet; 
and  Frederick's  attitude  made  it  clear  enough  to  the 
Roman  authorities  that  to  crush  Luther  summarily  was 
quite  out  of  the  question. 

Force  having  failed,  diplomacy  was  resorted  to.  The 
papal  chamberlain  Carl  von  Miltitz,  a  Saxon  noble- 
man and  agent  of  the  Saxon  princes  in  Rome,  was 


CONFLICT  WITH  ROME  127 

despatched  to  Germany  to  discover  how  the  land  lay, 
and,  if  possible,  induce  the  elector  to  yield  to  the  wishes 
of  the  pope.  His  instructions  gave  him  considerable 
latitude.  He  was  to  seize  Luther  and  send  him  to 
Rome  if  he  could,  but  if  not,  to  accomplish  the  desired 
end  in  some  more  indirect  fashion.  He  was  commis- 
sioned to  bestow  upon  the  elector  the  golden  rose,  the 
most  coveted  decoration  in  the  gift  of  the  pope.  Apro- 
pos of  this,  Luther  repeats  a  tale  brought  from  Rome, 
that  when  it  was  proposed  to  offer  Frederick  the 
golden  rose  on  condition  he  surrender  the  monk,  one 
of  the  cardinals  angrily  exclaimed :  "Are  you  all  chil- 
dren or  idiots  that  you  propose  to  buy  the  monk  from 
the  prince?'*  and  tore  up  the  document  containing  the 
proposal.  Whether  the  report  was  true  or  not,  at  any 
rate  the  gift  just  at  this  juncture  might  easily  be  con- 
strued as  an  attempt  to  bribe  the  elector ;  and'  though 
he  had  long  desired  it,  he  accepted  it  now  with  marked 
coolness. 

Arrived  in  Germany,  Miltitz  speedily  discovered  the 
situation  to  be  much  more  serious  than  had  been  imag- 
ined at  Rome.  He  found  the  whole  country  stirred 
up  over  Luther's  case,  and  not  more  than  one  German  (/ 
out  of  every  four  on  the  pope's  side.  An  army  of 
twenty-five  thousand  men,  he  confessed,  would  be  in- 
sufficient to  carry  Luther  off  to  Rome.  It  was  quite 
evident  the  time  for  suppressing  him  by  force  or 
threats  had  passed,  and  the  adroit  envoy,  interpreting 
his  mission  more  broadly  than  had  been  intended,  at 
once  decided  that  the  only  course  was  to  gain  him  by 
flattery  and  promises  of  favor.  He  apparently  let  it 
be  known  quietly  to  Luther's  friends  that  ecclesiastical  ^ 
preferment,  possibly  even  a  bishopric,  would  be  his 
reward  if  he  yielded.  At  least  Pfeffinger,  who  was 
with  Miltitz  in  Nuremberg,  was  sure  the  Wittenberg 


128  MARTIN  LUTHER 

professor  might  have  any  dignity  he  wished,  as  Chris- 
topher Scheurl  was  careful  to  inform  Luther  in  a  very 
interesting  letter  of  the  twentieth  of  December.  A 
couple  of  years  later,  it  may  be  added,  at  the  Diet  of 
Worms,  the  Elector  Frederick  told  some  of  his  fellow- 
princes  that  he  knew  to  a  certainty  Martin  could  have 
a  rich  archbishopric,  or  a  cardinal's  hat,  if  he  would 
only  recant. 

Finding  such  hints  of  no  avail,  early  in  January, 
1519,  Miltitz  secured  a  personal  interview  with  Luther 
himself.  He  met  him  with  assurances  of  respect  and 
protestations  of  affection,  and  succeeded  in  persuading 
him  to  agree  to  have  his  case  submitted  to  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Treves,  and  to  abide  by  his  decision.  Luther 
further  promised,  as  he  had  already  offered  to  do  at 
Augsburg,  to  say  no  more  upon  the  subject  of  indul- 
gences, and  to  refrain  from  all  controversy  if  his  op- 
ponents would  do  the  same.  The  one  thing  the  curia 
most  desired  was  to  put  an  end  to  the  discussion.  The 
more  public  attention  was  called  to  the  matter,  the 
worse  for  the  indulgence  traffic,  so  long  unpopular  in 
many  quarters.  If  the  Wittenberg  professor  could  not 
be  induced  to  retract,  the  next  best  thing,  as  Miltitz 
rightly  saw,  was  to  secure  his  silence;  and  out  of  con- 
sideration for  the  peace  of  the  church  Luther  entered 
cheerfully  into  a  conditional  agreement  to  remain 
quiet.  He  was  prevailed  upon  at  the  same  time  to  write 
a  humble  letter  to  the  pope,  though  it  was  apparently 
never  sent,  perhaps  because  not  submissive  enough  to 
suit  Miltitz,  and  he  also  published  a  pamphlet  for  cir- 
culation among  the  people,  warning  them  against  put- 
ting too  radical  an  interpretation  upon  his  utterances 
and  exhorting  them  to  loyalty  and  obedience. 

To  call  all  this  a  retraction  on  Luther's  part,  and  to 
accuse  him  of  cowardice  or  undue  regard  for  his  own 


EXTEKiUK.  OF  THE  FUGGER  HOUSE  AT  AUGSBURG 


From  a  uoucl-eii^  raving  by  Hans  Burkmair 
JACOB  FUGGER  OF  AUGSBURG 


CONFLICT  WITH  ROME  129 

safety  is  entirely  to  misunderstand  him.  The  situation 
was  very  natural  and  reveals  the  genuine  humanness 
of  the  Wittenberg  monk.  It  was  never  difficult  to 
work  upon  his  feelings,  and  the  wily  German  knew 
how  to  make  an  effective  appeal  to  his  ingrained  devo- 
tion and  his  long-time  habit  of  cloisteral  obedience.  It 
was  a  monastic  principle  that  chief  regard  must  always 
be  had  to  the  good  of  the  church,  and  for  its  sake 
even  the  truth  must  often  remain  unspoken.  When  r 
Luther  was  assured  that  the  welfare  of  the  institution  / 
he  loved  was  threatened,  naturally  enough  everything 
else  shrank  for  the  moment  into  insignificance.  Like 
many  another  man  of  his  temperament,  he  could  never 
be  driven,  but  he  could  very  easily  be  led.  Miltitz, 
despite  the  questionable  reputation  he  enjoyed,  was  the 
only  person  who  showed  any  understanding  of  the 
man  he  was  dealing  with. 

It  is  a  further  evidence  of  the  papal  envoy's  appre- 
ciation of  the  situation  that  he  recognized  the  need  of 
publicly  admitting  the  justice  of  Luther's  criticisms  and 
doing  something  to  mend  the  evils  he  had  attacked. 
Tetzel,  he  decided,  must  be  made  a  scapegoat  of,  and 
so  he  summoned  him  to  appear  and  answer  for  his 
conduct.  The  pope,  according  to  Scheurl,  had  already 
expressed  his  indignation  at  some  of  the  most  offen- 
sive utterances  attributed  to  the  indulgence  preacher, 
and  whether  rightly  or  wrongly,  the  Roman  authorities 
from  this  time  on  held  him  accountable  for  all  the 
trouble. 

When  Tetzel  informed  Miltitz  that  the  wrath  of  the 
people  made  it  unsafe  for  him  to  obey  the  summons, 
the  papal  envoy  sought  him  out  in  Leipsic,  where  he 
had  sheltered  himself  in  a  monastery,  and  passed  con- 
demnation upon  him  for  immorality  of  long  standing 
and  for  alleged  dishonesty  in  connection  with  the  in- 

9 


/ 


130  MARTIN  LUTHER 

diligence  funds.  Tetzel  felt  his  disgrace  keenly,  and 
did  not  long  survive.  It  was  like  Luther  to  write  him 
a  letter  of  sympathy  before  his  death,  telling  him  not 
to  take  the  matter  too  much  to  heart ;  the  fault  was  not 
his,  for  "the  child  had  another  father  altogether."  The 
responsibility  for  the  abuses  attaching  to  the  indul- 
gence traffic,  formerly  attributed  to  Tetzel,  or  at  worst 
to  Archbishop  Albert,  he  now  began  to  see  belonged  to 
the  papacy  itself.  Possibly  his  recent  stay  in  Augs- 
burg, where  the  anti-papal  attitude  of  the  Diet  was 
on  everybody's  lips,  had  opened  his  eyes  to  the  real 
situation.  At  any  rate,  thenceforth  he  laid  the  fault  at 
Rome's  door,  and  held  the  pope  himself,  or  the  curia, 
chiefly  responsible  for  the  evils  he  condemned. 

The  diplomatic  success  scored  by  Miltitz  proved, 
after  all,  only  temporary.  When  the  impressions  of 
the  interview  had  somewhat  faded,  and  he  had  leisure 
to  think  the  matter  over  calmly  by  himself,  Luther 
reverted  not  unnaturally  to  his  earlier  state  of  mind. 
He  became  aware  once  more  of  the  gravity  of  the 
issue,  and  began  to  feel  with  considerable  chagrin 
that  .under  the  spell  of  the  courtly  nobleman's  blandish- 
ments— his  "Judas  kiss  and  crocodile  tears"  as  he  ir- 
reverently called  them  in  a  letter  to  a  friend — he  had 
gone  too  far  and  yielded  too  much.  When  his  oppo- 
nents, paying  no  attention  to  Miltitz's  efforts,  gave 
him  the  opportunity  to  break  silence,  as  they  soon  did, 
it  is  not  surprising  he  entered  the  arena  again  more 
determined  and  more  radical  in  his  views  than  ever. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  LEIPSIC  DEBATE 

THE  summer  of  1519  witnessed  two  events  each  in 
its  way  of  cardinal  importance  for  the  career  of 
Luther  and  the  progress  of  the  Reformation — the  elec- 
tion of  an  emperor  of  Germany  and  the  Leipsic  debate. 
The  Emperor  Maximilian  died  unexpectedly  on 
the  twelfth  of  January.  The  two  most  prominent  can- 
didates for  the  imperial  throne  were  his  grandson 
Charles,  King  of  Spain  and  the  Netherlands,  and  King 
Francis  I  of  France.  Maximilian  had  already  been 
laying  the  wires  for  Charles's  election,  but  the  pope 
favored  the  candidacy  of  Francis.  The  election  lay 
in  the  hands  of  three  ecclesiastical  and  four  secular 
princes,  the  archbishops  of  Treves,  Mayence,  and 
Cologne,  the  electors  of  Brandenburg  and  Saxony,  the 
Count  Palatine,  and  the  King  of  Bohemia.  Large 
sums  of  money  were  spent  by  the  candidates  and 
their  supporters  in  forwarding  their  interests,  and 
Frederick  the  Wise  was  apparently  the  only  one  of 
the  seven  who  was  above  accepting  bribes.  It  looked 
for  a  time  as  if  the  prize  would  go  to  the  highest 
bidder,  but  as  the  possibility  of  Francis's  election  be- 
came imminent,  national  feeling  asserted  itself,  and 
demanded  an  emperor  of  German  blood.  Pressure 
proved  too  strong  to  be  resisted,  and  when  the  sup- 
porters of  Francis  found  it  impossible  to  secure  his 
election,  they  compromised  on  Frederick  the  Wise, 


132  MARTIN  LUTHER 

easily  the  most  influential  and  respected  of  German 
princes,  and  the  pope's  original  choice  for  the  position. 
Feeling  his  resources  unequal  to  the  task,  Frederick 
declined  the  proffered  crown  and  threw  the  weight  of 
his  influence  upon  the  side  of  Charles,  who  was  elected 
on  the  twenty-eighth  of  June. 

Not  for  centuries  had  such  power  been  lodged  in  the 
hands  of  a  single  man.  Inheriting  the  crown  of  Spain 
and  the  Netherlands  and  large  possessions  in  Italy  from 
his  Spanish  mother,  his  Hapsburg  father  brought  him 
Austria  and  Burgundy,  and  now  the  empire  of  Ger- 
many was  added.  Great  things  were  expected  of  him 
by  his  new  subjects,  particularly  by  the  members  of 
the  young  German  party.  Their  watchword  was  "Ger- 
many for  the  Germans,"  and  they  hoped  for  the  crea- 
tion of  a  strong  and  united  nation,  sufficient  unto  itself 
and  independent  of  all  foreign  control.  In  Germany, 
as  in  many  other  parts  of  Europe,  the  new  spirit  of 
nationalism  was  running  high,  and  everywhere  it  gave 
rise  to  a  growing  impatience  with  the  papacy,  for  the 
latter's  cosmopolitanism  seemed  to  many  the  greatest 
obstacle  to  national  development.  The  pope's  support 
of  the  candidature  of  Francis  only  made  matters  worse 
and  increased  the  hostility  to  his  interference  in  Ger- 
man affairs. 

The  election  of  Charles  was  hailed  with  enthusiasm, 
and  hope  everywhere  ran  high.  But  those  who  ex- 
pected much  were  doomed  to  disappointment.  Instead 
of  putting  himself  at  the  head  of  the  national  move- 
ment and  devoting  his  energies  to  the  building  up  of  a 
strong  and  independent  empire,  he  treated  Germany 
only  as  an  appanage  of  Spain,  where  alone  his  heart 
lay.  Though  German  blood  flowed  in  his  veins,  he 
was  by  temperament  and  training  far  more  Spanish 
than  German.  He  had  little  understanding  of  his  Teu- 


THE  LEIPSIC  DEBATE  133 

tonic  subjects,  or  sympathy  with  them,  and  to  their 
new  hopes  and  aspirations  he  was  altogether  blind. 
Germany  was  hardly  more  than  a  pawn  in  his  political 
game,  and  when  he  needed  the  support  of  the  papacy, 
he  was  quite  willing  to  use  his  power  to  suppress  heresy 
and  schism  in  the  empire,  as  he  was  equally  ready, 
even  though  a  devout  and  orthodox  Catholic,  to  permit 
both  to  flourish  wrhen  he  wished  to  bring  the  pope  to 
terms.  The  Lutheran  movement  thus  proved  fre- 
quently of  no  little  advantage  to  him,  but  of  real 
sympathy  with  it  he  never  showed  a  trace,  and  his 
general  policy  was  hostile  to  it. 

At  the  time  of  Charles's  election,  Luther  shared  the 
common  mood,  and  his  countrymen's  enthusiasm  for 
the  young  ruler  was  reflected  in  his  writings.  Over 
and  over  again  not  only  then,  but  years  afterward,  he 
spoke  in  terms  of  warm  admiration  of  the  emperor, 
and  it  was  long  before  he  could  bring  himself  to  believe 
that  he  would  disappoint  the  nation's  hopes. 

In  the  meantime,  while  the  intrigues  preceding  the 
election  were  distracting  the  attention  of  the  princes  of 
Germany,  Luther  was  preparing  himself  all  uncon- 
sciously to  fill  the  place  of  popular  leader  declined  by 
Charles.  As  yet  his  work  was  almost  exclusively  reli- 
gious and  theological,  and  its  wider  implications  were 
nowhere  understood,  but  as  the  event  proved  the  struc- 
ture ultimately  reared  was  the  more  permanent  because 
of  the  solidity  and  depth  of  the  foundations  he  was 
laying.  His  break  with  the  papacy,  a  necessary  step  in 
his  progress  toward  national  leadership,  was  becoming 
more  and  more  imminent  during  the  early  months  of 
1519,  and  was  greatly  hastened  by  the  second  of  the 
two  notable  events  of  that  year,  the  Leipsic  disputation. 

The  ablest  Catholic  theologian  of  the  day  in  Ger- 
many was  Dr.  John  Eck  of  the  University  of  Ingol- 


134  MARTIN  LUTHER 


stadt.  Some  three  years  younger  than  Luther,  he  took 
his  master's  degree  at  the  University  of  Tubingen  at 
the  early  age  of  fourteen,  while  Luther  was  still  only 
an  undergraduate.  Interested  in  mathematics,  geogra- 
phy, physics,  philosophy,  and  law,  as  well  as  theology, 
he  was  a  man  of  uncommon  learning  and  extraor- 
dinary attainments  in  many  fields.  For  a  time  he  was 
generally  reckoned  a  member  of  the  growing  human- 
istic party,  and  was  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  many  of 
its  leaders.  Luther  spoke  of  him  with  marked  respect 
in  some  of  his  earlier  letters,  and  frequently  sent  him 
greetings  through  common  friends.  But  the  appear- 
ance of  the  ninety-five  theses  led  to  a  permanent  break 
and  the  alinement  of  Eck  upon  the  side  of  reaction. 
He  criticized  them  severely  in  a  paper  intended  for 
private  circulation  called  "Obelisks."  Outraged  that 
a  man  he  supposed  his  friend  should  attack  him  with- 
out giving  him  any  warning,  Luther  replied  with 
considerable  asperity  in  a  similar  paper  entitled  "Aster- 
isks." Thenceforth,  although  the  forms  of  friendship 
were  observed  for  a  while,  there  was  growing  enmity 
between  the  two  men. 

In  May,  1518,  Luther's  friend  Carlstadt,  who  had 
some  time  before  committed  himself  publicly  and 
enthusiastically  to  the  Augustinian  theology  of  his 
younger  colleague,  assailed  Eck  in  an  extended  series 
of  theses,  and  the  controversy,  thus  opened,  was  car- 
ried on  vigorously  for  months.  The  Wittenberg  fac- 
ulty finally  invited  Eck,  an  experienced,  one  might 
almost  say  a  professional,  disputant,  to  meet  Carlstadt 
in  public  debate,  and  after  protracted  negotiations 
Leipsic  was  agreed  upon  as  the  scene  of  the  dispu- 
tation. 

In  the  winter  Eck  published  the  theses  he  purposed 
to  defend,  and  sent  a  copy  of  them  to  Luther.  Instead 


From  s  carbon  print  by  Braun  &  Co.  of  the  engraving  by  Albert  Diirei 
MAXIMILIAN  I,  EMPEROR  OF  GERMANY 


THE  LEIPSIC  DEBATE 

of  dealing  with  the  matters  in  dispute  between  himself 
and  Carlstadt,  they  had  to  do  wholly  with  Luther's 
teachings,  showing  it  was  he  whom  Eck  wished  to 
meet.  Indeed,  in  the  letter  accompanying  the  theses 
he  said : 

As  Carlstadt  is  your  champion,  but  you  are  the  prin- 
cipal, who  have  disseminated  throughout  Germany  dog- 
mas which  seem  to  my  small  and  feeble  judgment  false 
and  erroneous,  it  is  fitting  that  you  also  should  come  and 
either  defend  your  own  positions  or  disprove  mine.  .  .  . 

You  see  from  the  inclosed  document  that  the  proposi- 
tions have  been  aimed  not  so  much  at  Carlstadt  as  at  your 
teachings. 

Luther  felt  much  aggrieved  at  this  new  and  public 
attack,  made  as  it  was  under  cover  of  the  approaching 
debate  with  Carlstadt  and  despite  renewed  protesta- 
tions of  friendship.  In  deference  to  Miltitz,  he  had 
maintained  strict  silence,  and  had  even  allowed  a  recent 
pamphlet  of  Prierias  to  pass  unnoticed;  but  Eck's  as- 
sault was  too  serious  to  be  ignored.  He  was  the  first 
German  theologian  of  any  importance  to  come  out  in 
open  opposition,  and  Luther  felt  that  his  own  honor 
and  the  honor  of  the  university  required  him  to  meet 
his  antagonist  in  debate.  Considering  himself  absolved 
from  his  promise  of  silence  by  what  had  happened,  he 
decided  to  join  Carlstadt  in  the  approaching  disputa- 
tion, leaving  to  his  colleague  the  defense  of  the  Augus- 
tinian  theology,  and  devoting  himself  to  the  points 
specifically  impugned  in  Eck's  theses. 

He  found  considerable  difficulty  in  getting  Duke 
George's  permission  to  take  part.  It  seemed  almost  an 
affront  to  the  papal  see  to  allow  him  to  appear  in  Leip- 
sic  and  defend  propositions  he  had  already  been  called 
upon  to  recant.  But  he  was  very  eager,  and  wrote  a 


136  MARTIN  LUTHER 

number  of  urgent  letters  to  the  duke.  Finally,  Carl- 
stadt  was  authorized  to  bring  with  him  such  friends  as 
he  pleased,  and  under  cover  of  this  indirect  permission, 
Luther  appeared  and  bore  his  share  in  the  debate. 

Like  Tetzel  and  Prierias,  Eck  was  a  believer  in  papal 
absolutism  and  infallibility,  and  he  took  occasion  in  his 
final  thesis  to  declare  the  pope  successor  of  Peter  and 
universal  vicar  of  Christ,  thus  challenging  Luther  to 
debate  the  question  of  his  supremacy.  The  matter,  as 
Luther  saw  clearly  enough,  was  of  fundamental  impor- 
tance and  its  discussion  sooner  or  later  inevitable.  He 
therefore  spent  the  months  preceding  the  debate  in  the 
most  diligent  study  of  the  whole  topic.  As  he  gathered 
his  material,  he  became  convinced  of  the  nullity  of 
the  papal  claims.  He  discovered  the  untrustworthiness 
of  many  of  the  documents  appealed  to  in  their  support, 
and  was  led  to  the  conclusion  that  the  whole  structure 
was  based  on  fraud  and  was  of  comparatively  recent 
growth.  The  conclusion,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  was  quite 
unwarranted.  Papal  supremacy  was  much  older  than 
he  thought,  and  was  due  in  no  small  part  to  natural 
causes.  But  his  opinion  was  not  surprising  in  the  cir- 
cumstances, and  was  shared  by  many  others.  As  a 
consequence,  his  bitterness  steadily  increased,  and  it 
became  more  and  more  difficult  for  him  to  distinguish 
between  the  current  theory  and  the  papal  institution 
itself.  Writing  to  his  friend  Lang  on  the  third  of 
February,  he  said : 

Our  Eck  is  waging  new  wars  against  me,  and  it  will 
come  to  pass  that  I  shall  do  with  Christ's  aid  what  I 
have  long  had  in  mind;  namely,  attack  sometime  the 
Roman  scarecrows  in  a  serious  book.  For  hitherto  I 
have  only  sported  and  played  with  the  Roman  affair, 
although  they  complain  loudly  as  if  it  were  real  earnest. 


THE  LEIPSIC  DEBATE  137 

Before  the  end  of  the  month  he  wrote  Christopher 
Scheurl : 

Our  Eck,  after  beautifully  hiding  his  madness  against 
me  until  now,  has  finally  let  it  be  seen.  Behold  what 
kind  of  a  man  he  is !  But  God  is  in  the  midst  of  the 
gods,  and  knows  what  He  purposes  to  bring  out  of  this 
tragedy.  Neither  Eck  nor  I  can  serve  our  own  ends  in 
this  affair.  The  counsel  of  God,  so  I  believe,  will  be 
accomplished.  I  have  often  said  that  hitherto  I  have 
been  playing;  now  at  length  serious  things  against  the 
Roman  pontiff  and  Roman  arrogance  are  under  way. 

The  same  day  he  wrote  the  humanist  Willibald 
Pirkheimer : 

The  Lord  drags  me  and  not  unwillingly  do  I  follow. 
If  the  Roman  curia  has  mourned  over  dying  indulgences 
what  will  it  do  when  its  decretals,  if  God  will,  are  ex- 
piring? Not  that  I  would  boast  before  the  victory,  trust- 
ing in  my  own  powers,  but  I  have  faith  that  the  mercy  / 
of  God  will  be  wroth  at  human  traditions.  The  power 
and  majesty  of  the  supreme  pontiff  I  will  guard  and 
defend,  but  I  will  not  bear  corruptions  of  the  sacred 
scriptures. 

A  few  days  later  he  declared  in  a  letter  to  Spalatin : 

I  am  studying  the  papal  decretals  in  preparation  for 
my  disputation,  and,  between  us,  I  am  ignorant  whether 
the  pope  is  antichrist  himself  or  his  apostle,  so  miserably 
is  Christ— that  is,  the  truth— corrupted  and  crucified  by 
him  in  his  decretals. 

Already  in  December,  in  writing  to  his  friend  Link 
about  the  meeting  with  Cajetan  at  Augsburg,  he  had 
said: 

I  send  you  my  account  of  the  Augsburg  interview, 
couched  in  sharper  terms  than  the  legate  wished ;  but  my 


138  MARTIN  LUTHER 

pen  is  already  pregnant  with  much  greater  matters.  I  do 
not  know  where  my  ideas  come  from.  The  affair,  in  my 
judgment,  is  not  yet  begun,  much  less  is  it  nearing  its 
end,  as  the  Romans  hope.  I  will  send  you  my  trifles,  that 
you  may  see  whether  I  rightly  divine  that  the  antichrist, 
of  whom  Paul  speaks,  reigns  in  the  Roman  curia.  I 
think  I  am  able  to  show  that  he  is  worse  to-day  than 
the  Turk. 


The  idea  was  not  a  novel  one.  In  the  Middle  Ages 
the  word  "antichrist"  was  frequently  used  by  disputants 
as  a  term  of  opprobrium  for  political  or  ecclesiastical 
opponents  of  whatever  sort,  and  long  before  Luther's 
time  it  had  been  repeatedly  applied  to  the  pope  by  those 
who  saw  in  the  political  power  and  worldly  interests 
of  the  papacy  the  profanation  of  a  holy  office  and  the 
betrayal  of  Christ.  This  it  was  that  led  Luther  to 
the  same  condemnatory  judgment.  Not  the  personal 
character  of  the  popes,  but  the  secularization  of  the 
papacy  chiefly  aroused  his  resentment.  As  he  discov- 
ered how  consciously  and  deliberately  and  often  by 
what  devious  means  its  political  power  had  been  at- 
tained, his  anger  waxed  hot  within  him.  In  another 
letter  to  Spalatin,  written  about  the  same  time,  he  says : 

Many  things  I  suppress  and  hold  back  for  the  sake  of 
the  prince  and  our  university.  If  I  were  elsewhere,  I 
should  vomit  them  out  against  Rome,  or  rather  Babylon, 
the  devastator  of  Bible  and  church.  The  truth  about  the 
Bible  and  the  church,  my  Spalatin,  cannot  be  discussed 
without  offending  this  beast.  Therefore  do  not  hope  that 
I  shall  be  quiet  and  undisturbed  unless  you  wish  me  to 
give  up  theology  altogether.  Let  our  friends  think  me 
mad.  This  affair  will  not  have  an  end,  if  it  be  of  God, 
until  all  my  friends  desert  me,  as  his  disciples  and  ac- 
quaintances deserted  Christ,  and  truth  be  left  alone, 


From  a  carbon  print  by  Braun  &  Co.  of  the  painting  by  Clouet  in  the  Louvre 

FRANCIS  I  OF  FRANCE,  DEFEATED  CANDIDATE  FOR  THE  IMPERIAL 

THRONE  OF  GERMANY 


THE  LEIPSIC  DEBATE  139 

which  will  save  itself  by  its  own  power  and  not  by  mine 
nor  thine  nor  any  man's.  This  hour  I  have  expected 
from  the  beginning.  ...  If  I  perish,  the  world  will  lose 
nothing.  The  Wittenbergers,  by  the  grace  of  God,  have 
already  progressed  so  far  they  do  not  need  me  at  all. 
What  will  you  ?  I,  worthless  man  that  I  am,  fear  I  may 
not  be  counted  worthy  to  suffer  and  die  for  such  a  cause. 
That  felicity  belongs  to  better  men,  not  to  so  vile  a 
sinner. 


He  evidently  realized  the  seriousness  of  the  outlook. 
Insubordination  to  the  pope,  it  was  generally  believed, 
could  have  only  one  result,  the  condemnation  and 
death  of  the  rebel.  He  was  hastening  on,  it  seemed, 
to  certain  destruction.  His  friends  were  in  terror,  and 
urged  him  to  be  careful.  Carlstadt,  radical  and  im- 
petuous as  he  was,  tried  to  hold  him  back.  He  was 
ready  and  eager  to  defend  the  Augustinian  theology, 
but  was  not  prepared  to  attack  the  pope,  and  his 
younger  colleague's  course  sorely  alarmed  him. 

But  Luther  was  not  to  be  dissuaded.  Expediency 
meant  little  to  him,  his  own  reputation  and  safety  still 
less.  When  once  convinced  that  a  certain  evil  needed 
mending,  no  other  consideration,  however  important, 
could  long  hold  him  back.  He  would  often  restrain 
himself  for  the  sake  of  others  when  he  would  not  for 
his  own,  but  the  restraint  could  be  only  temporary,  and 
the  deed  had  at  length  to  be  done,  whatever  it  cost 
either  them  or  him. 

The  great  Leipsic  debate  began  on  the  twenty-sev- 
enth  of  June  in  the  hall  of  the  Pleissenburg,  Duke 
George's  palace,  in  the  presence  of  the  duke  himself 
and  many  other  distinguished  personages.  A  number 
of  professors  and  two  hundred  students  from  Witten- 
berg were  in  attendance,  and  the  latter  kept  the  town 


140  MARTIN  LUTHER 

well  stirred  up  with  their  noisy  and  not  always  orderly 
demonstrations  in  support  of  the  Wittenberg  cham- 
pions. 

Peter  Mosellan,  a  Leipsic  professor  of  humanistic 
sympathies,  gives  us  a  vivid  description  of  the  partici- 
pants in  the  debate.  The  following  pen-picture  of  Lu- 
ther, then  thirty-five  years  old,  is  worth  quoting : 

Martin  is  of  medium  height  and  slender  form,  with  a 
body  so  wasted  both  with  cares  and  study  that  you  can 
almost  count  all  his  bones.  He  is  just  in  the  prime  of 
life,  with  a  clear  and  penetrating  voice.  His  learning 
and  his  knowledge  of  Scripture  are  admirable,  and  he 
has  almost  everything  at  command.  He  knows  enough 
Greek  and  Hebrew  to  decide  between  different  interpreta- 
tions. Nor  is  he  wanting  in  matter,  for  he  has  a  great 
forest  both  of  ideas  and  words.  Judgment,  perhaps,  and 
discretion  you  might  miss  in  him.  In  his  life  and  man- 
ners he  is  polite  and  affable,  not  in  the  least  stoical  or 
supercilious,  and  he  is  able  to  adapt  himself  to  all  occa- 
sions. In  company  he  is  a  gay  and  merry  jester,  alert 
and  good-humored,  everywhere  and  always  with  a  bright 
and  cheerful  face,  however  terribly  his  enemies  threaten 
him,  so  that  you  find  it  difficult  to  believe  the  man  could 
undertake  so  arduous  a  task  without  divine  aid.  But 
there  is  one  thing  nearly  all  count  a  vice  in  him:  he  is 
a  little  more  imprudent  and  biting  in  reproof  than  is 
either  safe  in  one  who  goes  new  ways  in  theology  or 
decorous  in  a  theologian,  a  fault  which  I  am  not  sure 
does  not  attach  to  all  that  have  learned  late. 

During  the  first  week  the  debate  was  between  Eck 
and  Carlstadt,  and  Luther  entered  the  fray  only  on 
the  fourth  of  July.  It  was  for  this  both  Eck  and  the 
spectators  had  been  eagerly  waiting,  and  the  disputa- 
tion now  assumed  for  the  first  time  the  aspect  of  a  real 
and  serious  struggle.  The  disputants  began  at  once 


THE  LEIPSIC  DEBATE  141 

with  the  fundamental  question  of  the  nature  of  papal 
authority.     Luther  was  very  careful  and  moderate  in 
his  utterances.    He  did  not  deny  the  supremacy  of  the! 
pope.     He  claimed  only  that  he  ruled  by  human,  not! 
divine,  right,  and  a  Christian  might  therefore  be  saved/ 
even  if  he  refused  to  submit  to  his  authority.     This, 
Eck  at  once  declared,  sounded  very  like  the  opinion  of 
John  Hus,  who  had  been  condemned  by  the  Council  of 
Constance  and  burned  at  the  stake  a  hundred  years 
before. 

The  spread  of  Hus's  views  in  Bohemia,  his  native 
land,  had  led  to  civil  war  and  cost  Germany  much  blood 
and  treasure.  The  Bohemian  heresy  had  become  the 
synonym  of  riot  and  revolution,  and  to  accuse  Luther 
of  sympathy  with  it  was  to  hold  him  up  to  general 
execration.  He  felt  the  gravity  of  the  accusation,  and 
at  first  repelled  it  angrily.  "Never,"  he  retorted,  "have 
I  taken  pleasure  in  any  schism  whatsoever,  nor  will 
I  to  the  end  of  time.  The  Bohemians  have  done  wrong 
in  voluntarily  separating  from  our  communion,  even 
if  they  have  divine  right  on  their  side;  for  the  highest 
divine  right  is  love  and  unity  of  the  Spirit." 

But  after  thinking  the  matter  over,  he  declared,  "It 
is  certain  that  among  the  articles  of  John  Hus  and  the 
Bohemians  are  many  most  Christian  and  evangelical, 
and  these  the  universal  church  cannot  condemn." 

This  was  the  climax  of  the  debate.  Luther's  words 
were  heard  with  horror  by  his  enemies  and  with  con- 
sternation by  his  friends.  From  the  duke  they  elicited 
an  angry  oath  audible  to  the  whole  assembly.  Seeing 
the  effect  produced,  Luther  tried  to  qualify  his  state- 
ment and  make  it  less  offensive ;  but  he  had  expressed 
his  real  opinion,  as  everybody  saw,  and  .explanation 
did  not  help  the  matter. 

A  couple  of  days  later,  in  response  to  Eck's  con- 


142  MARTIN  LUTHER 


tinued  appeal  to  the  authority  of  the  Council  of  Con- 
stance, he  declared:  "I  shall  not  be  moved  until  the 
most  excellent  doctor  proves  that  a  council  is  unable 
to  err,  has  not  erred,  and  does  not  err.  For  a  council 
cannot  make  divine  right  of  what  is  not  by  its  nature 
such,  nor  can  it  make  that  heresy  which  is  not  against 
divine  right." 

To  which  Eck  replied :  "The  Reverend  Father  begs 
me  to  prove  that  a  council  cannot  err.  I  am  ignorant 
what  he  means  by  this  unless  he  wishes  to  throw  sus- 
picion on  the  praiseworthy  Council  of  Constance. 
This  I  say  to  you,  Reverend  Father,  if  you  believe  that 
a  council  lawfully  assembled  errs  and  has  erred,  you 
are  to  me  as  a  heathen  and  a  publican." 

Eck  was  fully  justified  in  taking  this  position,  for  to 
deny  or  doubt  the  infallibility  of  a  general  council  was 
to  reject  the  one  ultimate  authority  depended  upon  for 
centuries  by  Catholic  Christians.  That  Luther  took 
his  stand  upon  the  Bible  did  not  help  the  matter.  Ac- 
cording to  Catholic  belief,  the  church  alone  could  prop- 
erly interpret  the  Bible,  and  to  set  the  teaching  of  the 
one  in  opposition  to  the  other  was  nothing  less  than 
heresy. 

The  remainder  of  the  debate,  dealing  with  purga- 
tory, indulgences,  penance,  and  related  matters,  was  of 
little  importance,  and  the  attention  of  the  spectators 
flagged.  It  is  significant  of  the  change  wrought  in  a 
year  and  a  half  that  the  discussion  of  indulgences 
aroused  scant  interest.  Eck  was  quite  ready  to  ad- 
mit the  justice  of  many  of  his  opponent's  strictures 
upon  the  practice,  and  Luther  declared  there  never 
would  have  been  any  trouble  if  the  ecclesiastical  au- 
thorities had  taken  this  attitude  in  the  beginning.  The 
conflict  had  been  carried  so  much  further,  and  had 
come  to  involve  so  much  graver  things,  that  agreement 


. 

hlA 


THE  LEIPSIC  DEBATE  143 

or  disagreement  about  the  matter  originally  in  dispute 
counted  for  little.  Luther  had  been  driven  by  his  oppo- 
nents, and  led  by  his  own  study  and  reflection,  to  posi- 
tions so  radical  as  to  make  his  earlier  criticism  of 
abuses  seem  of  small  importance.  He  might  be  ortho- 
dox in  every  other  respect,  and  accept  without  question 
all  the  doctrines  and  practices  of  the  church,  but  to 
deny  its  infallible  authority  was  to  put  himself  outside 
the  Catholic  pale.  Unless  he  repented  and  recanted, 
his  excommunication  was  a  foregone  conclusion. 

The  debate  from  Luther's  point  of  view  was  not  a 
success.  He  had  hoped  much  from  it,  and  returned 
home  greatly  disappointed.  Despite  his  own  and  his 
supporters'  claims,  the  victory  was  really  Eck's,  not 
his,  and  it  was  fairly  won.  No  other  outcome  was 
possible,  and  the  result  might  have  been  foreseen.  Lu- 
ther made  a  much  better  showing  against  the  powerful 
and  resourceful  debater  than  Carlstadt,  but  even  his 
skill  was  unequal  to  the  task  of  defending  an  essen- 
tially indefensible  position.  He  committed  the  mistake 
of  supposing  that  the  radical  views  reached  under  the 
influence  of  his  own  religious  experience  were  in  har- 
mony with  the  faith  of  the  church.  It  is  a  common 
mistake.  Some  men,  when  they  find  themselves  out  of 
sympathy  with  the  prevailing  beliefs  of  the  institution 
wherein  they  have  been  born  and  bred,  at  once  turn 
their  backs  upon  it.  Others  of  a  more  sanguine  tem- 
perament, or  with  more  of  the  reformer's  instinct, 
read  its  faith  in  the  light  of  their  own  opinions,  and 
endeavor  to  call  their  fellows  back  to  what  they  believe 
its  real  platform.  When,  as  is  very  apt  to  happen, 
a  conflict  comes  and  they  try  to  defend  as  orthodox 
what  they  were  originally  led  to  accept  as  true,  they 
only  invite  defeat.  Luther  maintained  at  Leipsic  not 
merely  that  his  interpretation  of  the  papacy  was  correct, 


144  MARTIN  LUTHER 

but  that  it  was  orthodox,  and  in  this,  as  Eck  showed, 
he  was  wrong.  There  remained  only  the  alternative  of 
abandoning  his  interpretation  and  accepting  the  tradi- 
tional view  or  of  foregoing  the  claim  of  orthodoxy. 
Consciously  and  deliberately  he  chose  the  latter  course, 
and  in  doing  so  broke  decisively  with  all  his  past. 

Eck  repeatedly  protested  that  he  held  all  his  opinions 
subject  to  correction  by  the  ecclesiastical  authorities, 
but  Luther  avowed  submission  to  no  one.  Only  to  the 
clear  teaching  of  the  divine  word  would  he  bow,  and 
he  would  read  it  with  his  own  and  not  with  other  men's 
eyes.  In  his  attack  on  indulgences  he  had  appealed 
from  the  indulgence-venders  to  the  pope ;  at  Augsburg, 
from  the  pope-ill-informed  to  the  pope-to-be-better- 
informed;  and  soon  afterward  from  the  pope  to  a 
council.  Now,  when  the  decision  of  a  council  was 
cited  against  him,  he  declined  to  be  bound  by  it,  and 
took  his  stand  upon  the  sole  authority  of  the  Scriptures. 
But  even  this  was  not  final.  The  Bible  itself,  he  main- 
tained, has  to  be  used  with  discrimination,  for  parts  of 
it  do  not  teach  Christian  truth.  He  really  substituted 
for  all  external  authorities  the  enlightened  conscience 
of  the  individual  Christian.  The  Bible  he  read  for  him- 
self and  admitted  the  claim  of  no  council  or  body  of 
men  to  read  it  for  him.  This,  in  principle,  though  he 
never  fully  realized  it,  and  seldom  acted,  upon  it,  meant 
the  right  of  private  judgment  in  religious  things,  and 
in  it  lay  the  promise  of  a  new  age. 

It  was  not  skepticism  or  indifference  to  religion  that 
enabled  Luther  thus  to  stand  upon  his  own  feet. 
Rather  it  was  the  vividness  of  his  religious  experience, 
making  him  sure  of  acceptance  with  God.  Because  of 
this  he  found  it  possible  to  dispense  with  the  traditional 
authorities.  Had  he  not  come  into  conflict  with  the 
rulers  of  the  church,  he  might  have  lived  to  the  end 


from  the  painting  by  Lucas  Cra 


DUKE  GEORGE  OF  SAXONY 


THE  LEIPSIC  DEBATE  145 

of  his  days  quite  unaware  of  any  difference  between 
himself  and  his  fellow-Christians.  Many  another  had 
passed  through  a  religious  experience  similar  to  his 
and  had  lived  and  died  content  in  the  communion  of 
the  Catholic  Church.  There  was  nothing  in  his  faith 
to  cause  a  break.  But  when  it  became  impossible  to 
speak  his  mind  about  abuses  and  remain  within  the 
Roman  fellowship,  he  discovered  his  faith  was  such 
that  he  could  get  along  outside.  He  justified  his 
attitude  not  by  declaring  the  church  unnecessary,— 
even  when  most  radical  he  was  still  conservative,— 
but  by  interpreting  it  as  the  community  of  Chris- 
tian believers  wherever  found  and  however  governed. 
Greeks,  Bohemians,  and  others  condemned  by  Rome 
he  now  regarded  as  members  of  the  universal  church, 
and  in  their  communion  he  felt  it  possible  to  enjoy  all 
the  blessings  of  Christianity.  He  did  not  for  a  moment 
imagine  that  the  Roman  Church  was  not  a  true  church, 
but  he  came  to  feel  that  it  was  not  the  only  one,  and  if 
forced  without  its  pale,  he  would  still  be  a  member  of 
the  Christian  family. 

The  significance  of  the  Leipsic  debate  for  Luther's 
own  development  it  is  impossible  to  exaggerate.  It 
meant  the  final  parting  of  the  ways.  It  showed  him 
clearly  where  he  stood  and  emancipated  him  once  and 
for  all  from  the  delusion  that  he  was  in  harmony  with 
the  papal  Church  and  could  remain  permanently 
within  it.  His  condemnation  he  saw  must  follow  in 
due  time,  and  while  Miltitz  was  still  hopeful,  and  was 
industriously  laying  plans  for  compromise  and  con- 
ciliation, Luther  himself  was  preparing  for  the  break 
he  knew  could  not  long  be  delayed. 

It  shows  the  distance  traveled  and  the  lessons  learned 
from  the  experiences  of  the  last  two  years  that  he  was 
neither  crushed  nor  apparently  greatly  distressed  by 
10 


146  MARTIN  LUTHER 

the  outlook.  His  development  had  been  gradual,  and 
he  was  fully  prepared  to  take  the  final  step  when  con- 
fronted by  it.  He  had  not  foreseen  the  outcome,  and, 
as  he  often  said,  would  never  have  dared  to  begin  had 
he  known  whither  he  was  going;  but  he  was  driven 
against  his  will  from  point  to  point,  and  could  not  turn 
back  without  denying  his  faith.  History  presents  no 
more  striking  example  of  the  iron  logic  of  events. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  DEVELOPING  CONTROVERSIALIST 

'THROUGH  startled  when  he  first  discovered  his 
JL  agreement  with  Hus,  as  he  did  at  the  Leipsic  dis- 
putation, Luther  soon  recovered  his  equanimity,  and 
was  heartened  rather  than  dismayed  by  the  discovery. 
During  the  summer  he  received  letters  from  prominent 
Bohemians  expressing  their  joy  in  him  and  his  work 
and  likening  his  place  in  Saxony  to  that  of  Hus  in 
Bohemia.  Instead  of  denying  all  sympathy  with  the 
condemned  heretic,  as  he  would  have  done  a  few  weeks 
before,  he  acknowledged  the  letters  with  thanks,  and 
after  reading  for  the  first  time  some  of  Hus's  writings, 
declared,  with  his  usual  impulsiveness  and  frank  gener- 
osity :  "Hitherto  I  have  unconsciously  held  and  taught 
all  the  doctrines  of  John  Hus.  John  Staupitz  has  also 
taught  them  in  like  ignorance.  Briefly  we  are  all  Hus- 
sites without  knowing  it."  Evidently  he  had  come  to 
look  upon  the  generally  hated  Bohemians  as  allies,  and 
felt  confirmed  in  his  own  position  rather  than  fright- 
ened from  it  because  it  was  shared  by  them. 

The  same  sympathy  with  outsiders  appeared  in  the 
Leipsic  debate  itself,  when  he  referred  to  the  Eastern 
Church  in  support  of  his  contention  that  submission 
to  the  pope  was  not  necessary  to  salvation.  Most  of 
the  Greek  fathers  either  knew  nothing  of  papal  su- 
premacy or  consciously  rejected  it.  In  them  he  found 
kindred  spirits,  and  thenceforth  was  always  fond  of 

H7 


148  MARTIN  LUTHER 

appealing  to  them.  His  attitude  was  not  a  sign,  as  is 
often  said,  of  his  native  breadth  of  view,— liberality 
was  not  one  of  his  virtues,— but  of  the  instinctive  feel- 
ing of  comradeship  with  others  like  himself  in  opposi- 
tion. He  began  to  think  of  himself  not  merely  as  a 
single  individual  engaged  in  a  petty  contest  of  his  own, 
but  as  one  of  a  long  line  of  fighters  against  ecclesi- 
astical tyranny  and  corruption.  His  consciousness  ex- 
panded, and  his  work  came  to  seem  of  national  and 
even  world-wide  meaning. 

He  always  had  an  uncommonly  vivid  sense  of  ful- 
filling the  divine  will  in  everything  he  undertook.  Now 
the  conviction  dominated  him  more  completely  than 
ever.  Henceforth  he  believed  himself  one  of  God's 
chosen  instruments,  called  to  carry  on  the  labors  of  the 
great  leaders  who  had  fought  and  fallen  in  earlier  days. 
Martyrdom  he  was  in  constant  expectation  of,  looking 
forward  to  the  fate  that  had  overtaken  so  many.  But 
he  was  inspired  rather  than  oppressed  by  the  thought, 
and  rejoiced  in  the  opportunity  to  suffer  as  they  had 
suffered. 

He  also  saw  more  clearly  than  before  the  difficul- 
ties of  the  task  he  was  engaged  in.  Others  had  tried 
to  do  what  he  was  now  attempting,  and  had  failed. 
Even  this  did  not  dishearten  him.  He  believed  the 
times  were  fast  growing  ripe.  Either  he  or  some  one 
else  for  whom  he  was  preparing  the  way— his  col- 
league Melanchthon,  for  instance— he  was  sure  would 
yet  accomplish  the  hitherto  impossible.  Fantastic  no- 
tions that  the  end  of  the  world  was  at  hand,  notions 
very  common  in  that  day,  began  to  find  lodgment  in  his 
mind,  and  were  never  afterward  altogether  abandoned. 
It  was. a  time  of  feverish  excitement,  not  altogether 
conducive  to  calm  and  deliberate  thought. 

The  months  succeeding  the  Leipsic  disputation  were 


THE  CONTROVERSIALIST  149 

very  busy  ones.  His  mental  powers  were  at  their 
height  and  he  worked  to  the  very  limit  of  his  strength. 
He  was  more  active  with  his  pen  than  ever,  continu- 
ally  sending  pamphlets  to  the  press  and  occasionally 
books  of  considerable  bulk.  The  titles  of  his  publica- 
tions for  the  year  1519  number  nearly  thirty,  many  of 
them  to  be  sure  only  sermons  or  brief  tracts,  but 
among  them  two  large  Scripture  commentaries  and  a 
sizable  book  on  the  power  of  the  pope.  In  one  of  his 
letters  he  complained  of  his  inability  to  publish  as  rap- 
idly as  he  wished  because  of  the  limitations  of  the 
printing-office,  and  a  little  later  informed  a  friend  that 
he  kept  three  presses  going  all  the  time.  It  was  his 
habit  to  send  copy  to  the  printer  day  by  day,  and  he 
was  nearly  always  reading  the  proof  of  the  earlier 
pages  of  a  book  while  writing  the  later.  Often  the 
preface  was  in  type  before  the  work  itself  was  even 
begun.  It  is  surprising  not  that  much  of  his  published 
work  bears  the  marks  of  haste,  but  that  so  many  of  his 
writings  still  richly  repay  reading  after  the  lapse  of 
four  centuries. 

Newspapers  were  then  unknown  and  the  place  they 
now  occupy  was  filled  by  brief  pamphlets.  Since  the 
recent  invention  of  printing  the  latter  had  multiplied 
rapidly  and  were  read  with  great  avidity.  Of  this 
means  of  reaching  the  public  ear  Luther  made  most 
effective  use,  becoming  in  a  short  time  the  most  active 
and  influential  pamphleteer  in  Germany  and  giving  a 
tremendous  impetus  to  the  new  form  of  popular  litera- 
ture. He  had,  as  he  once  remarked,  a  quick  hand  and 
a  ready  memory,  and  all  he  wrote  flowed  from  his  pen 
without  effort.  His  speed  was  the  despair  of  friends 
and  foes  alike.  It  is  amusing  to  see  how  often,  when 
requested  by  Spalatin  or  the  elector  or  some  other 
anxious  sympathizer  to  refrain  from  a  publication 


t/ 


150  MARTIN  LUTHER 

likely  to  make  trouble,  he  replied  that  their  protests 
were  too  late,  for  the  deed  was  already  done.  The 
physical  and  mental  vitality  of  the  man  was  one  of 
the  most  amazing  things  about  him  and  one  of  the 
secrets  of  his  tremendous  power. 

He  was  indefatigable  in  controversy,  determined  to 
let  no  attack  go  unanswered.  Hearing  that  the  Uni- 
versity of  Erfurt,  which  had  been  asked,  with  the 
University  of  Paris,  to  pass  judgment  on  the  Leipsic 
debate,  was  about  to  give  a  decision  against  him,  he 
wrote  his  old  friend  Lang  in  October : 

The  Leipsic  people  assert  that  your  Erfurters  have 
reached  a  conclusion  adverse  to  us  and  favorable  to  Eck. 
If  this  be  so  I  hope  it  will  prove  of  advantage  to  you  that 
your  people  have  meddled  without  cause  in  a  matter  that 
is  none  of  their  business.  I  have  resolved  in  a  Latin  and 
German  defense  to  brand  their  judgment  with  infamy 
before  the  whole  world,  and  for  the  sake  of  protecting 
the  truth  I  will  publicly  show  its  injustice  or  its  igno- 
rance as  soon  as  it  is  announced,  and  in  doing  so  I  shall 
be  innocent  of  their  blood.  My  mind  is  made  up  not  to 
leave  a  single  syllable  of  my  theses  undefended.  Thej 
will  of  God  be  done. 

A  little  later,  learning  that  the  report  was  incorrect 
and  the  university  had  declined  to  pronounce  any  judg- 
ment, he  wrote  Lang  again : 

I  am  glad  your  Erfurters  have  refused  to  render  a 
decision.  For  it  is  already  in  vain  we  have  disputed,  and 
even  a  judgment  from  the  Parisians  will  accomplish  noth- 
ing except  to  give  me  an  opportunity  of  speaking  against 
the  Roman  antichrist  with  the  aid  of  God. 

The  attacks  upon  him  during  these  months  were 
many  and  severe.  Though  he  frequently  expressed 


THE  CONTROVERSIALIST  151 

regret  at  being  obliged  to  waste  so  much  time  in 
controversy  and  interrupt  more  important  work,  he 
really  welcomed  the  attacks  as  invitations  to  let  his 
views  be  known,  and  many  a  reply  was  rather  a  state- 
ment of  his  own  doctrines  than  an  answer  to  his  an- 
tagonists. For  the  latter,  he  often  contented  himself 
with  personal  abuse  instead  of  reasoned  argument. 
"Never,"  he  politely  assured  one  of  his  assailants, 
"have  I  seen  a  more  ignorant  ass  than  you,  though  you 
particularly  boast  of  having  studied  dialectics  for  many 
years.  I  greatly  rejoice  to  be  condemned  by  so  obscure 
a  head." 

His  treatment  of  opponents,  which  grew  more  bitter 
with  the  passing  years,  has  always  been  a  ground  of 
offense  to  his  enemies  and  of  confusion  to  his  friends. 
After  the  not  uncommon  fashion  of  the  day,  error 
in  opinion  was  taken  as  a  sign  of  moral  obliquity,  and 
the  inexhaustible  stores  of  his  rich  and  racy  vocabulary 
were  freely  drawn  upon  to  portray  the  characters  of 
those  venturing  to  oppose  him.  From  the  beginning 
profoundly  convinced  of  his  own  divine  call,  he  iden- 
^ified  his  cause  with  God's  and  always  attributed  the 
hostility  of  his  enemies  to  the  promptings  of  Satan, 
who  filled  their  hearts  with  hatred  for  God  and  all  His 
works.  In  these  circumstances  the  outbreaks  of  his 
fiery  temper  were  justified  as  heaven-sent.  In  1531, 
more  than  ten  years  after  his  final  break  with  Rome, 
in  a  pamphlet  entitled  "Against  the  Traitor  at  Dres- 
den," he  wrote : 

This  shall  be  my  glory  and  honor,  and  I  will  have  it 
so,  that  henceforth  they  will  say  of  me  that  I  am  full  of 
bad  words,  of  scolding  and  cursing  against  the  papists. 
I  have  often  humbled  myself  for  more  than  ten  years, 
and  used  the  very  best  language,  but  have  only  increased 
their  wrath,  and  the  peasants  have  been  the  more  puffed 


152  MARTIN  LUTHER 

up  by  my  supplications.  Now,  however,  because  they 
are  obdurate  and  have  determined  to  do  nothing  good, 
but  only  evil,  so  that  there  is  no  longer  any  hope,  I  will 
hereafter  heap  curses  and  maledictions  upon  the  villains 
until  I  go  to  my  grave,  and  no  good  word  shall  they 
hear  from  me  again.  I  will  toll  them  to  their  tombs  with 
my  thunder  and  lightning.  For  I  cannot  pray  without 
at  the  same  time  cursing.  If  I  say,  "Hallowed  be 
Thy  name,"  I  have  to  add,  "Cursed,  damned,  reviled  be 
the  name  of  the  papists  and  of  all  who  blaspheme  Thy 
name."  If  I  say,  "Thy  kingdom  come,"  I  have  to  add, 
"Cursed,  damned,  destroyed  be  the  papacy,  together  with 
all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth,  which  oppose  Thy  king- 
dom." If  I  say,  "Thy  will  be  done,"  I  have  to  add, 
"Cursed,  damned,  reviled,  and  destroyed  be  all  the 
thoughts  and  plans  of  the  papists  and  of  every  one  who 
strives  against  Thy  will  and  counsel."  Thus  I  pray  aloud 
every  day  and  inwardly  without  ceasing,  and  with  me  all 
that  believe  in  Christ.  And  I  feel  sure  that  my  prayer 
will  be  heard.  Nevertheless  I  have  a  kind,  friendly, 
peaceable,  and  Christian  heart  toward  every  one,  as  even 
my  worst  enemies  know. 

His  violence  has  been  excused  by  appealing  to  the 
prevailing  tone  of  contemporary  polemics,  but  the  ex- 
cuse is  insufficient.  Though  his  form  of  expression 
might  have  been  different  in  another  century,  the  man 
he  was  would  have  been  violent  and  vituperative  in 
any.  Passionate  and  high-tempered,  to  speak  or  write 
calmly  about  an  antagonist  was  an  impossibility  to  him. 
As  he  once  remarked  in  a  letter  to  a  friend :  "That  I 
am  vehement  is  not  to  be  wondered  at.  If  you  were 
what  I  am  you  too  would  be  vehement."  Anger  he  al- 
ways recognized  as  his  greatest  fault,  but  he  believed 
it  a  very  good  thing  in  its  place.  He  liked  to  be  angry 
in  a  good  cause,  he  once  remarked.  It  refreshed  him 
like  a  thunderstorm,  and  he  could  write  much  better 


THE  CONTROVERSIALIST  153 

for  it.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  seldom  deliberated  over 
his  controversial  productions,  but  dashed  them  off 
while  his  wrath  was  at  its  hottest,  and,  printing  always 
as  he  wrote,  he  never  had  the  opportunity  or  took  the 
pains  to  revise  and  moderate  his  language  after  the 
first  flush  of  indignation  had  passed. 

When  Spalatin  found  fault,  in  1520,  with  the  strong 
language  of  a  reply  to  the  Bishop  of  Meissen,  he  wrote : 

Greeting.  Good  God !  how  excited  you  are,  my  Spala- 
tin! You  seem  even  more  stirred  up  than  I  and  the 
others.  Do  you  not  see  that  my  patience  in  not  replying 
to  Emser's  and  Eck's  five  or  six  wagon-loads  of  curses 
is  the  sole  reason  why  the  framers  of  this  document 
have  dared  to  attack  me  with  such  silly  and  ridiculous 
nonsense?  For  you  know  how  little  I  cared  that  my 
sermon  at  Leipsic  was  condemned  and  suppressed  by  a 
public  edict;  how  I  despised  suspicion,  infamy,  injury, 
hatred.  Must  these  audacious  persons  even  be  permitted 
to  add  to  these  follies  scandalous  pamphlets  crammed 
full  of  falsehoods  and  blasphemies  against  gospel 
truth?  Do  you  forbid  even  to  bark  at  these  wolves? 
The  Lord  is  my  witness  how  I  restrained  myself 
lest  I  should  not  treat  with  reverence  this  accursed  and 
most  impotent  document  issued  in  the  bishop's  name. 
Otherwise  I  should  have  said  things  those  heads  ought 
to  hear,  and  I  will  yet,  when  they  acknowledge  their 
authorship  by  beginning  to  defend  themselves.  I  beg, 
if  you  think  rightly  of  the  gospel,  do  not  imagine  its 
cause  can  be  accomplished  without  tumult,  scandal,  and 
sedition.  Out  of  the  sword  you  cannot  make  a  feather, 
nor  out  of  war,  peace.  The  word  of  God  is  a  sword,  war, 
ruin,  destruction,  poison,  and,  as  Amos  says,  it  meets  the 
children  of  Ephraim  like  a  bear  in  the  way  and  a  lioness 
in  the  woods. 

I  cannot  deny  that  I  have  been  more  vehement  than  is 
seemly.  But  since  they  knew  this,  they  ought  not  to  have 


154  MARTIN  LUTHER 

stirred  up  the  dog.  How  difficult  it  is  to  temper  one's 
passions  and  one's  pen  you  can  judge  even  from  your 
own  case.  This  is  the  reason  I  have  always  disliked  to 
engage  in  public  controversy;  but  the  more  I  dislike  it, 
the  more  I  am  involved  against  my  will,  and  that  only 
by  the  most  atrocious  slanders  brought  against  me  and 
the  word  of  God.  If  I  were  not  carried  away  thereby 
either  in  temper  or  pen,  even  a  heart  of  stone  would  be 
moved  by  the  indignity  of  the  thing  to  take  up  arms; 
and  how  much  more  I,  who  am  both  passionate  and  pos- 
sessed of  a  pen  not  altogether  blunt!  By  these  mon- 
strosities I  am  driven  beyond  modesty  and  decorum.  At 
the  same  time,  I  wonder  where  this  new  religion  came 
from,  that  whatever  you  say  against  an  adversary  is  re- 
garded as  slander.  What  do  you  think  of  Christ?  Was 
he  a  slanderer  when  he  called  the  Jews  an  adulterous 
and  perverse  generation,  the  offspring  of  vipers,  hypo- 
crites, sons  of  the  devil  ?  And  what  about  Paul  when  he 
used  the  words  dogs,  vain  babblers,  seducers,  ignorant, 
and  in  Acts  xiii  so  inveighed  against  a  false  prophet  that 
he  seems  almost  insane:  "Oh,  thou  full  of  all  deceit  and 
of  all  craft,  thou  son  of  the  devil,  enemy  of  truth"? 
Why  did  he  not  gently  flatter  him,  that  he  might  convert 
him,  rather  than  thunder  in  such  a  way?  It  is  not  pos- 
sible, if  acquainted  with  the  truth,  to  be  patient  with  in- 
flexible and  ungovernable  enemies  of  the  truth.  But 
enough  of  this  nonsense.  I  see  that  everybody  wishes  I 
were  gentle,  especially  my  enemies,  who  show  themselves 
least  so  of  all.  If  I  am  too  little  gentle,  I  am  at  least 
simple  and  open,  and  therein,  as  I  believe,  surpass  them, 
for  they  dispute  only  in  a  deceitful  fashion.  Farewell, 
and  be  not  afraid. 

Twenty  years  and  more  later,  referring  to  one  of  his 
bitterest  and  most  scathing  invectives,  he  remarked : 

I  have  read  my  book  over  again,  and  wonder  how  it 
happened  that  I  was  so  moderate.     I  ascribe  it  to  the 


THE  CONTROVERSIALIST  155 

state  of  my  head,  which  was  such  that  my  mind  was 
prevented  from  working  more  freely  and  actively. 


His  violence  was  not  merely  a  matter  of  tempera- 
ment but  also  of  deliberate  choice.  As  he  once  re- 
marked, when  criticized  for  his  sharp  words : 

Our  Lord  God  must  begin  with  a  pelting  thunder- 
storm, afterward  it  rains  gently  and  so  soaks  into  the 
ground.  A  willow  or  hazel  twig  you  can  cut  with  a 
bread-knife,  but  for  a  hard  oak  you  must  have  an  ax 
and  then  you  can  hardly  fell  it  and  split  it. 

He  was  better  acquainted  than  most  men  with  the 
common  people  of  his  day,  and  he  knew  strong  lan- 
guage was  needed  to  move  and  arouse  them.  He  was 
working  not  to  win  a  reputation,  but  to  stir  up  a 
nation,  and  while  many  others  were  appealing  to  a 
small  and  select  circle  of  the  cultured,  vast  multitudes 
were  hanging  on  his  words.  His  fiercest  onslaughts 
carried  terror  and' joy  to  the  ends  of  Christendom,  and 
by  them  no  less  than  by  his  inimitable  appeals  to  the 
finer  sentiments  he  swayed  and  dominated  the  masses. 
Often  he  went  beyond  all  reason  and  broke  the  canons 
of  good  taste  recognized  even  in  that  free-spoken  age ; 
but  he  was  not  engaged  in  a  parlor  exhibition,  and  he 
would  have  cared  as  little  for  our  criticisms  of  his 
style  of  fighting  as  he  did  for  the  criticisms  of  his 
contemporaries.  Had  he  been  other  than  he  was,  he 
might  have  been  better  liked  by  many  a  delicate  soul, 
but  he  could  not  have  wielded  the  influence  he  did. 
He  needs  no  apologies  from  us.  As  well  apologize  for 
the  fury  of  the  wind  as  for  the  vehemence  of  Martin 
Luther. 

But  if  we  would  do  justice  to  this  extraordinary 


156  MARTIN  LUTHER 

man,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  conflict  he  was 
engaged  in  did  not  keep  him  from  performing  his 
ordinary  duties  with  his  accustomed  vigor  and  effec- 
tiveness. He  did  more  than  a  man's  full  work  quite 
apart  from  his  controversy,  though  the  latter,  it  would 
seem,  was  alone  enough  to  absorb  all  his  attention  and 
tax  all  his  powers.  He  preached  regularly  in  the  city 
church  and  the  convent,  lectured  as  usual  in  the  uni- 
versity, and  gave  a  surprising  amount  of  attention  to 
administrative  matters,  concerning  himself  even  with 
the  pettiest  details  of  faculty  business.  He  also  worked 
steadily  upon  the  interpretation  of  the  Bible,  continuing 
the  publication  of  his  careful  and  laborious  exposition 
of  the  Psalms,  which  excited  the  admiration  even  of  an 
Erasmus,  and  issuing  in  the  autumn  his  famous  com- 
mentary on  Galatians,  designed  particularly  to  bring 
his  new  interpretation  of  the  gospel  to  the  attention  of 
the  learned  world.  In  addition  he  printed  many  moral 
and  religious  pamphlets,  containing  no  trace  whatever 
of  the  stress  and  strain  of  conflict,  and  wrote  beautiful 
letters  and  tracts  for  the  solace  and  inspiration  of  the 
sick  and  suffering. 

A  couple  of  brief  passages  may  be  quoted  from  his 
quaint  little  book,  entitled  "Tesseredecas,"  because  con- 
taining in  two  contrasted  tables  seven  pictures  of  the 
evils  Christians  are  called  on  to  suffer  and  seven  of  the 
blessings  with  which  God  consoles  them.  It  was  written 
in  September,  in  the  midst  of  battle  and  under  the  pres- 
sure of  strenuous  labors,  for  the  comfort  of  the  Elector 
Frederick,  who  was  lying  grievously  ill. 

When  you  regard  as  sacred  relics,  and  love,  kiss,  and 
embrace  the  coat,  the  vessels,  the  water-jars,  and  all  the 
things  Christ  touched  and  used,  why  do  you  not  much 
more  love,  embrace,  and  kiss  pains,  worldly  evils,  igno- 
miny, and  death  ?  For  these  he  not  only  made  sacred,  but 


THE  CONTROVERSIALIST  157 

bathed  and  blessed  them  with  his  blood,  enduring  them 
with  willing  heart  and  deepest  devotion. 

When  Jacob  heard  that  his  son  Joseph  was  a  ruler  in 
Egypt,  like  one  awaking  out  of  deep  sleep  he  believed  it 
not  until  the  wagons  sent  by  Joseph  proved  the  truth  of 
all  his  sons  told  him.  Thus  it  would  be  indeed  difficult 
to  believe  so  great  blessings  are  given  us  unworthy  crea- 
tures in  Christ,  if  he  had  not  revealed  himself  to  his  dis- 
ciples in  manifold  ways,  and  taught  us  also  to  believe  by 
use  and  experience  as  if  we  saw  the  very  wagons.  A 
wagon  bringing  rich  comfort  it  is  that  Christ  has  been 
made  to  us  by  God  righteousness,  sanctification,  redemp- 
tion, and  wisdom.  For  I  am  a  sinner,  but  I  am  borne 
in  his  righteousness  given  to  me;  I  am  impure,  but  his 
holiness  is  my  sanctification  wherein  I  sweetly  ride ;  I  am 
foolish,  but  his  wisdom  carries  me ;  worthy  of  damnation 
I  am,  but  his  liberty  is  my  redemption,  a  wagon  most 
secure. 

Luther  showed  the  simplicity  of  his  nature  when 
he  soon  afterward  asked  the  manuscript  of  this  tract 
back  from  Spalatin,  hoping  to  derive  from  its  perusal 
consolation  in  his  own  troubles. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  NATIONAL  REFORMER 

WHILE  enemies  were  springing  up  on  all  sides  to 
denounce  Luther  for  his  attitude  toward  papacy 
and  church  his  fame  was  rapidly  growing  and  his 
friends  and  supporters  were  steadily  multiplying.  Par- 
ticularly important  was  the  recognition  received  from 
leading  humanists  both  at  home  and  abroad.  They 
were  the  liberals  of  the  day,  devoted  to  the  new  cul- 
ture of  the  age  and  eager  to  welcome  anything  prom- 
ising release  from  the  yoke  of  ecclesiastical  bigotry 
and  theological  obscurantism.  As  early  as  the  autumn 
of  1518,  speaking  of  Albrecht  Diirer,  Lazarus  Spen- 
gler,  and  other  celebrated  lights  of  Nuremberg,  Chris- 
topher Scheurl  remarked :  "Nearly  all  the  conversation 
at  table  concerns  a  certain  Martin.  Him  they  celebrate, 
adore,  and  champion.  For  him  they  are  prepared  to 
endure  everything."  A  few  months  later  he  wrote 
Eck,  expostulating  with  him  for  his  attack  on  Luther : 

You  are  bringing  upon  yourself,  unless  I  am  mistaken, 
the  strong  disfavor  and  hatred  of  most  followers  of 
Erasmus  and  Reuchlin,  nearly  all  friends  of  learning,  and 
even  modern  theologians.  I  have  recently  traveled 
through  a  number  of  important  dioceses  and  everywhere 
found  a  great  many  adherents  of  Martin.  The  clergy's 
love  for  the  man  is  astonishing.  They  are  flying  to  him 
in  flocks,  like  jackdaws  and  starlings.  They  subscribe 
to  his  opinions,  they  applaud  him,  they  bless  him. 

158 


THE  NATIONAL  REFORMER          159 

About  the  same  time  Luther  received  letters  from 
John  Froben,  the  publisher  of  Basel,  and  from  Wolf- 
gang Capito,  a  well-known  humanist,  informing  him 
that  he  had  many  warm  and  influential  friends  in 
Switzerland  and  along  the  Rhine,  and  that  his  books 
were  widely  read  not  only  there,  but  also  in  Italy, 
France,  Spain,  and  England. 

Even  the  great  Erasmus  spoke  of  him  in  a  friendly 
way,  and  guarded  as  his  utterances  were,  for  he  early 
realized  the  difference  between  Luther's  spirit  and  his 
own,  his  attitude  was  generally  interpreted  as  sympa- 
thetic, and  greatly  enhanced  Luther's  credit  with  men 
of  modern  tendencies. 

The  Leipsic  debate  still  further  increased  his  repu- 
tation.  The  humanist  Mosellan  had  expected  to  hear 
only  old  and  threadbare  themes  discussed  in  traditional 
scholastic  fashion,  and  was  surprised  and  delighted  at 
Luther's  attitude,  as  he  was  careful  to  inform  his  corre- 
spondents. Luther's  enemies,  humanists  everywhere 
now  began  to  realize,  were  theirs  and  his  struggle 
a  renewal  of  the  Reuchlin  conflict  between  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  old  and  the  new  learning.  In  such  a 
battle  it  could  not  be  doubtful  where  their  sympathies 
would  lie. 

In  October  he  received  a  couple  of  notable  letters 
from  an  acquaintance  of  his  Erfurt  student  days,  the 
humanist  Crotus  Rubeanus,  principal  author  of  the 
famous  "Letters  of  Obscure  Men."  Crotus  was  in 
Italy  at  the  time,  and  gave  Luther  first-hand  informa- 
tion of  the  efforts  there  on  foot  to  crush  him.  He  also 
hailed  him  in  enthusiastic  terms  as  a  father  of  the 
fatherland,  "worthy  of  a  golden  statue  and  an  annual 
feast." 

This  recognition  of  the  national  importance  of  Lu- 
ther's work,  taken  with  the  unconcealed  contempt  for 


160  MARTIN  LUTHER 

the  Roman  curia  which  breathes  in  the  letters  of 
Crotus,  was  full  of  significance.  It  foreshadowed  an 
alliance  between  Luther  and  another  group  of  Germans 
who  were  chiefly  interested  in  economic  and  political 
reform.  The  leading  spokesman  of  the  group  was 
Ulrich  von  Hutten,  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  pic- 
turesque figures  of  the  age.  Son  of  a  poor  knight,  and, 
on  account  of  his  delicate  physique,  destined  for  the 
priesthood,  he  early  ran  away  and  spent  the  remainder 
of  his  brief  life  in  wandering  from  place  to  place,  at 
times  in  abject  poverty,  again  enjoying  the  favor 
and  protection  of  the  great.  He  was  a  poet  of  no  mean 
gifts  and  an  enthusiastic  humanist.  While  in  Italy,  in 
1517,  he  ran  across  Lorenzo  Valla's  significant  work 
on  the  Donation  of  Constantine  which  proved  that 
famous  document  a  forgery.  For  centuries  canonists 
had  made  the  Emperor  Constantine's  alleged  gift  to 
Pope  Sylvester  one  of  the  bases  of  the  papal  claim  to 
political  sovereignty  over  the  western  world.  To  show 
the  gift  a  mere  fiction  was  to  strike  a  severe  blow  at  the 
prestige  of  the  papacy.  Upon  Hutten  Valla's  work 
made  a  great  impression.  He  republished  it  with  a 
fiery  preface  of  his  own,  and  was  thenceforth  one 
of  the  most  active  opponents  of  the  Roman  see.  Ger- 
many's subjection  to  it,  he  became  convinced,  was  the 
principal  cause  of  all  the  ills  of  his  native  land,  and 
he  exchanged  the  career  of  a  mere  litterateur  for  that 
of  a  political  agitator.  Before  long  he  was  widely 
recognized  as  the  most  influential  member  of  the  young 
German  party  and  the  chief  leader  in  the  movement  for 
throwing  off  the  Roman  yoke. 

At  Augsburg,  in  1518,  Hutten  did  much  to  arouse 
the  enmity  of  the  members  of  the  diet  to  the  holy  see. 
He  had  no  interest  as  yet  in  Luther  or  his  cause.  He 
looked  with  contempt  upon  the  whole  thing  as  a  mere 


THE  NATIONAL  REFORMER          161 

monk's  quarrel.  But  after  the  Leipsic  debate,  perhaps 
under  the  influence  of  his  old  friend  Crotus,  he  saw 
in  the  Wittenberg  professor  the  most  formidable 
opponent  the  papacy  had  yet  encountered  and  thought 
of  him  as  a  possible  ally.  At  the  time  he  was  in  the 
service  of  Archbishop  Albert  of  Mayence  and  there 
were  difficulties  in  the  way  of  forming  an  acquaintance 
with  Luther;  but  he  sent  him  greetings,  and  in  the 
spring  of  1520,  through  the  intervention  of  common 
friends,  the  two  men  got  into  communication  with  each 
other,  and,  though  only  temporary,  their  friendship, 
while  it  lasted,  was  of  great  importance  for  them  both. 
It  opened  Hutten's  eyes  to  the  religious  issues  involved 
in  the  national  movement,  and  Luther's  to  the  impor- 
tance of  that  movement  for  his  own  cause.  Hitherto, 
while  not  blind  to  the  economic  and  social  evils  of  the 
day,  as  many  passages  in  his  earlier  writings  show, 
Luther's  thought  was  largely  occupied  with  educational 
and  religious  questions.  Now  he  began  to  concern  him- 
self with  other  matters  altogether,  and  to  dream  of  a 
reformation  which  should  affect  every  phase  of  na- 
tional life. 

Hutten's  friendship  for  Luther  also  brought  the  re- 
former the  support  of  many  other  German  noblemen, 
and  gave  him  a  feeling  of  personal  security  and  inde- 
pendence quite  unknown  before.  In  his  letters  of  1520 
he  referred  frequently  and  with  great  satisfaction  to 
his  new  allies.  Writing  to  Spalatin  in  July  he  said : 

I  inclose  a  letter  from  the  Franconian  knight,  Syl- 
vester Schaumberg,  and  should  be  glad,  if  it  is  not  too 
much  trouble,  to  have  the  prince  mention  it  in  his  com- 
munication to  the  Cardinal  of  St.  George,  that  they  may 
know,  even  if  they  drive  me  out  of  Wittenberg,  with 
their  detestable  attacks,  they  will  accomplish  nothing,  but 
will  only  make  their  case  worse.  For  now  not  merely  in 
11 


1 62  MARTIN  LUTHER 

Bohemia,  but  in  the  heart  of  Germany  itself,  there  are 
those  able  and  willing  to  protect  the  exile  in  spite  of  them 
and  all  their  thunders.  There  is  danger  that,  once  under 
their  protection,  I  shall  be  much  more  severe  in  attacking 
the  Romanists  than  if  I  remain  under  the  dominion  of 
the  prince,  engaged  in  the  work  of  teaching.  This  with- 
out doubt  will  occur  unless  God  prevents.  I  shall  not 
then  be  obliged  to  consider  the  prince,  whom  I  have 
hitherto  respected  on  many  occasions,  even  when  pro- 
voked. Let  them  know  I  frequently  refrain  from  at- 
tacking them  not  because  of  my  own  modesty  or  their 
tyranny  or  merit,  but  because  of  the  name  and  authority 
of  the  prince,  as  well  as  the  common  good  of  the  Witten- 
berg students.  As  for  me,  the  die  is  cast.  Rome's  fury 
and  favor  are  alike  despised.  Never  will  I  be  reconciled, 
or  commune  with  her. 

Not  simply  Schaumberg,  but  also  no  less  a  person 
than  Franz  von  Sickingen,  friend  and  protector  of 
Hutten,  and  the  most  powerful  and  widely  feared 
knight  of  Germany,  offered  the  reformer  an  asylum 
and  assured  him  of  his  warm  interest.  Sickingen  and 
Schaumberg,  Luther  wrote  to  Spalatin,  had  freed  him 
altogether  from  the  fear  of  men. 

Under  the  influence  of  his  newly  formed  connection 
with  such  warriors  as  these,  Luther  even  went  so  far 
as  to  give  expression  to  sentiments  of  a  decidedly  vio- 
lent sort.  In  June,  referring  to  a  new  attack  by 
Prierias,  he  wrote : 

It  seems  to  me,  if  the  fury  of  the  Romanists  goes  on 
in  this  fashion,  no  remedy  is  left  except  for  emperor, 
kings,  and  princes  to  arm  themselves  and  attack  these 
pests  of  the  whole  world,  and  settle  the  affair  no  longer 
with  words,  but  with  the  sword.  For  what  do  these  lost 
men,  deprived  even  of  common  sense,  say?  Exactly 
what  was  predicted  of  antichrist,  as  if  we  were  more 


THE  NATIONAL  REFORMER          163 

irrational  than  blockheads.  If  we  punish  thieves  with 
the  halter,  brigands  with  the  sword,  heretics  with  fire, 
why  do  we  not  still  more  attack  with  every  sort  of 
weapon  these  masters  of  perdition,  these  cardinals,  these 
popes,  and  all  this  crowd  of  Roman  Sodom,  who  corrupt 
the  church  of  God  unceasingly?  Why  do  we  not  bathe 
our  hands  in  their  blood  that  we  may  rescue  ourselves 
and  our  children  from  this  general  and  most  dangerous 
conflagration  ? 

And  in  a  letter  to  Spalatin  written  on  the  thirteenth 
of  November  he  expressed  the  wish  that  Hutten's  plan 
to  intercept  and  capture  the  papal  legates  on  their  way 
to  the  Diet  of  Worms  might  have  been  carried  out. 

To  be  sure,  too  much  should  not  be  made  of  such 
utterances.  They  are  exceptional  in  Luther's  writings. 
As  a  rule,  he  earnestly  deprecated  physical  violence  and 
armed  revolution.  In  January,  1521,  he  declared 
himself  entirely  out  of  sympathy  with  Hutten's  warlike 
plans,  writing  to  Spalatin : 

You  see  what  Hutten  desires.  I  do  not  wish  to  battle 
for  the  gospel  with  violence  and  murder,  and  I  have 
written  the  man  to  that  effect.  By  the  word  the  world 
has  been  conquered  and  the  church  preserved,  and  by 
the  word  it  will  be  repaired.  Antichrist  also,  as  he  began 
without  violence,  will  without  violence  be  overthrown  by 

the  word. 
» 

And  a  little  later : 

I  am  without  blame,  for  I  have  striven  to  bring  it 
about  that  the  German  nobility  should  check  the  Roman- 
ists, as  they  are  well  able  to  do,  with  resolutions  and 
edicts,  not  with  the  sword.  For  to  attack  the  unarmed 
masses  of  the  clergy  would  be  like  making  war  upon 
women  and  children. 


164  MARTIN  LUTHER 

In  1522,  in  his  bitter  pamphlet  "Against  the  so- 
called  Spiritual  Estate  of  Pope  and  Bishops,"  after  de- 
claring that  every  one  who  did  what  he  could  to  uproot 
the  episcopate  and  destroy  its  authority  was  a  child  of 
God  and  a  true  Christian,  he  added : 

I  do  not  mean  that  the  bishops  should  be  overthrown 
with  fist  and  sword.  They  are  not  worth  such  punish- 
ment, nor  would  anything  be  accomplished  by  it.  On 
the  contrary,  as  Daniel  teaches,  the  antichrist  is  to  be 
overcome  without  force,  every  one  using  God's  word 
against  him  until  he  falls  into  contempt  and  perishes  of 
himself. 

But  in  1520  the  reformer  was  evidently  feeling  the 
influence  of  his  new  friends  and  entering  rather  reck- 
lessly into  their  warlike  ideas.  Gradually  he  steadied 
himself  again  and  realized  that  the  cause  he  was  inter- 
ested in  would  only  be  hindered  by  violence  and  war. 
Thenceforth  he  was  unalterably  opposed  to  both. 

THE  most  notable  fruit  of  Luther's  awakened  interest 
in  national  reform  was  his  famous  "Address  to  the 
German  Nobility,"  published  in  August,  1520.  In  the 
dedicatory  letter  to  his  colleague  Amsdorf  he  says : 

The  time  for  silence  is  past  and  the  time  to  speak  is 
come,  as  the  preacher  Solomon  says.  In  conformity  with 
our  resolve  I  have  put  together  a  few  points  concerning 
the  reformation  of  the  Christian  estate  in  order  to  lay 
them  before  the  Christian  nobility  of  Germany  in  case  it 
may  please  God  to  help  His  church  by  means  of  the 
laity,  .since  the  clergy  whom  this  task  rather  befitted  have 
grown  quite  careless.  I  send  it  all  to  your  worship  to 
judge,  and  to  amend  where  needed.  I  am  well  aware 
that  I  shall  not  escape  the  reproach  of  taking  far  too 
much  upon  me  in  presuming,  despised  and  insignificant 


THE  NATIONAL  REFORMER          165 

man  as  I  am,  to  address  such  high  estates  on  such 
weighty  subjects,  as  if  there  were  no  one  in  the  world 
but  Dr.  Luther  to  have  a  care  for  Christianity  and  to 
give  advice  to  such  wise  people.  I  offer  no  excuse.  Let 
who  will  blame  me.  Perhaps  I  still  owe  God  and  the 
world  another  folly.  This  debt  I  have  now  resolved 
honestly  to  discharge,  if  I  can,  and  to  be  court  fool  for 
once.  If  I  fail,  I  have  at  least  one  advantage,  that  no 
one  need  buy  me  a  cap  or  shave  my  poll.  But  it  remains 
to  be  seen  which  shall  hang  the  bells  on  the  other.  I 
must  fulfil  the  proverb  "When  anything  is  to  be  done  in 
the  world  a  monk  must  be  in  it  were  it  only  as  a  painted 
figure." 

I  beg  you  to  excuse  me  to  the  moderately  wise  for  I 
know  not  how  to  deserve  the  favor  and  grace  of  the 
overwise.  Often  I  have  sought  it  with  much  labor,  but 
henceforth  will  neither  have  nor  care  for  it.  God  help  us 
to  seek  not  our  glory  but  His  alone. 

The  work  itself  was  a  ringing  appeal  to  the  German 
Emperor,  princes,  and  nobility  to  take  in  hand  the 
reformation  of  Germany,  religious,  ethical,  social,  and 
economic.  Because  of  the  claim  of  pope  and  hierarchy 
that  the  civil  power  had  no  jurisdiction  in  the  matter, 
and  no  one  but  they  could  reform  the  church,  a  terrific 
onslaught  was  made  upon  them.  The  current  criticisms 
of  the  avarice  and  extortion  of  the  curia  and  the  cur- 
rent impatience  at  its  spoliation  of  Germany  were  given 
passionate  expression.  "Do  we  still  wonder/'  he  ex- 
claimed, "why  princes,  noblemen,  cities,  convents,  land, 
and  people  grow  poor  ?  We  should  rather  wonder  that 
we  have  anything  left  to  eat."  "Oh,  noble  princes  and 
lords,  how  long  will  you  suffer  your  land  and  your  peo- 
ple to  be  the  prey  of  these  ravening  wolves?" 

The  incompatibility  between  the  spiritual  office  and 
temporal  power  of  the  pope  was  also  depicted  in  vivid 
fashion : 


1 66  MARTIN  LUTHER 

How  can  the  government  of  the  empire  consist  with 
preaching,  prayer,  study,  and  the  care  of  the  poor? 
These  are  the  true  employments  of  the  pope.  Christ  im- 
posed them  with  such  insistence  that  he  forbade  to  take 
either  coat  or  scrip,  for  he  that  has  to  govern  a  single 
house  can  hardly  perform  these  duties.  Yet  the  pope 
wishes  to  rule  an  empire  and  remain  pope. 

Luther  conceded  that  the  bishop  of  Rome  might  still 
be  the  spiritual  head  of  Christendom  whom  all  should 
honor  and  obey  in  spiritual  things  so  long  as  he  was 
true  to  Christ.  But  he  would  have  his  temporal  power 
brought  altogether  to  an  end  and  would  deprive  him  of 
all  administrative  authority  over  the  church  in  Ger- 
many. The  management  of  its  affairs,  the  appointment 
and  deposition  of  its  officials,  the  trial  of  ecclesiastical 
cases,  the  granting  of  dispensations  and  the  like,  he 
would  put  into  the  hands  of  the  German  ecclesiastical 
authorities  presided  over  by  the  primate  of  Germany, 
the  Archbishop  of  Mayence.  The  new  national  feeling, 
growing  rapidly  in  Luther's  day,  here  found  utterance. 
In  religion,  as  in  everything  else,  the  nation,  he  be- 
lieved, should  manage  its  own  affairs  and  live  its  own 
life. 

But  freedom  from  a  foreign  yoke  was  not,  in  his 
opinion,  all  Germany  needed.  The  false  claims  of 
the  clergy  must  be  exposed  and  their  usurped  power 
taken  from  them.  They  possessed  no  prerogatives  not 
belonging  of  right  to  all  Christians.  They  were  only 
ministers  appointed  to  serve  in  religious  things,  and 
were  subject  to  the  people,  not  lords  over  them.  Civil 
rulers  "ordained  of  God  for  the  punishment  of  the  bad 
and  protection  of  the  good"  were  supreme  in  their  own 
lands  and  the  clergy  were  as  completely  under  their 
jurisdiction  as  anybody  else.  If  the  existing  ecclesi- 
astical authorities  failed  to  do  their  duty  and  left  the 


From  an  old  print 


ULRICH  VON  HUTTEN 


THE  NATIONAL  REFORMER          167 

church  unre formed,  the  civil  rulers  must  take  the  mat- 
ter in  hand  and  force  a  reformation  in  spite  of  hier- 
archy and  pope.  Liberty  from  the  domination  of  the 
spiritual  power,  from  dependence  upon  its  offices  and 
from  dread  of  its  penalties,  was  one  of  the  watchwords 
of  the  book.  In  it  a  new  age  was  foreshadowed. 

No  less  important  was  Luther's  declaration  of  free- 
dom from  bondage  to  exclusively  religious  duties. 
Perhaps  the  most  extraordinary  thing  about  the  book 
is  its  complete  break  with  what  may  be  called  the 
monastic  ideal  of  life.  As  in  his  important  "Sermon 
on  Good  Works,"  published  some  months  before,  he 
complained  again  of  the  over-emphasis  of  religion.  It 
sounds  strange  enough  to  hear  a  monk  insisting  that 
such  common  human  virtues  as  find  play  in  the  ordinary 
relationships  of  life  are  far  more  important  than  any 
religious  exercises.  This  difference  in  the  estimate  of 
life  was  more  decisive  than  any  difference  of  doctrine 
between  Luther  and  the  Roman  Church,  at  this  or  any 
subsequent  time.  In  it  was  wrapped  up  the  promise  of 
a  new  world. 

The  Address  to  the  German  Nobility  was  not  simply 
an  appeal  for  reformation  and  an  attack  upon  the 
forces  that  were  hindering  it,  but  also  a  program  of 
reform  on  a  large  scale.  All  sorts  of  evils  were  dealt 
with,  and  the  range  of  topics  was  very  wide.  Amaze- 
ment has  often  been  expressed  that  a  monk  should 
possess  so  extensive  a  knowledge  of  men  and  things. 
The  amazement  is  misplaced.  Luther  had  long  been  a 
public  man  in  touch  with  the  movements  of  the  day  and 
in  correspondence  with  leaders  of  thought  in  many 
parts  of  Germany  and  abroad.  It  would  have  been  sur- 
prising had  he  not  known  what  men  were  thinking  and 
talking  about.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  said  little  that 
was  new.  More  than  any  other  of  his  important  wo^1  :s 


1 68  MARTIN  LUTHER 

the  Address  to  the  Nobility  reflected  the  ideas  of  his 
contemporaries.  Not  Hutten  alone,  but  many  besides, 
had  attacked  the  evils  of  the  day,  religious,  ecclesiasti- 
cal, social,  and  economic,  as  severely  and  as  intelli- 
gently as  he.  And  so  far  as  his  constructive  program 
went  it  was  as  vague  and  unpractical  as  any  of  theirs. 
There  was  much  homely  good  sense  in  his  proposals 
of  reform— the  abolishment  of  the  mendicant  orders, 
the  reduction  of  festivals  and  holidays,  the  abandon- 
ment of  enforced  clerical  celibacy,  the  improvement  of 
schools  and  universities,  the  regulation  of  beggary, 
and  the  like — but  some  of  his  suggestions  were  quite 
impracticable  and  revealed  a  vast  ignorance  particu- 
larly of  economics  and  politics. 

He  wanted  to  put  a  bridle  on  the  Fuggers,  the  great 
money-lenders  of  the  day. 

How  is  it  possible  that  in  a  single  man's  lifetime  such 
great  and  kingly  wealth  can  be  collected  together  if  all 
be  done  rightly  and  according  to  God's  will?  I  am  not 
skilled  in  accounts,  but  I  do  not  understand  how  a  hun- 
dred gulden  can  gain  twenty  in  a  year  or  how  one  can 
gain  another,  and  that  not  from  the  soil  or  cattle,  where 
success  depends  not  on  the  wit  of  men  but  on  the  bless- 
ing of  God. 

In  this  he  was  only  giving  voice  to  the  common  and 
oft-expressed  sentiment  of  the  knights  and  nobles,  the 
rural  magnates  of  the  age,  whose  prosperity  and  pres- 
tige were  threatened  by  the  extension  of  trade  and 
the  growth  of  cities.  Like  them,  he  was  opposed  to 
commerce  and  in  favor  of  agriculture,  and  he  sup- 
ported his  position  as  he  always  did  by  appealing  to 
the  Bible. 

This  I  know  well,  it  were  much  more  godly  to  increase 
agriculture  and  lessen  commerce,  and  they  do  best  who, 


THE  NATIONAL  REFORMER          169 

according  to  the  Scriptures,  till  the  ground  to  get  their 
living.  As  is  said  to  all  of  us  in  Adam,  "Cursed  be  the 
earth.  When  thou  workest  in  it  it  shall  bring  forth 
thistles  and  thorns  to  thee,  and  in  the  sweat  of  thy  face 
shalt  thou  eat  thy  bread." 

The  greatest  misfortune  of  the  Germans  he  be- 
lieved was  the  growing  custom  of  mortgaging  their 
property. 

But  for  this  many  a  man  would  have  to  leave  unbought 
his  silk,  velvet,  jewelry,  spices,  and  all  sorts  of  luxuries. 
The  system  has  not  been  in  force  more  than  a  hundred 
years  and  has  already  brought  poverty,  misery,  and  de- 
struction on  almost  all  princes,  foundations,  cities,  no- 
bles, and  heirs.  If  it  continue  for  another  hundred  years 
Germany  will  be  left  without  a  farthing,  and  we  shall  be 
reduced  to  eating  one  another.  The  devil  invented  this 
system  and  the  pope  has  done  injury  to  the  whole  world 
by  sanctioning  it. 

The  reigning  extravagance  in  food  and  dress  like- 
wise troubled  him,  and  he  wished  to  see  it  controlled  by 
legislation.  At  the  same  time  he  thought  the  nation 
could  do  without  its  elaborate  system  of  laws  and  could 
best  be  governed  by  wise  princes  using  only  the  Bible 
as  their  guide. 

He  always  had  great  confidence  in  the  ability  of  civil 
rulers  to  set  everything  right  in  the  social  and  economic 
sphere  if  they  only  had  the  inclination.  In  1539,  when 
the  price  of  food  stuffs  was  unwontedly  high  in  Wit- 
tenberg, and  there  was  much  complaint  in  consequence, 
he  wrote  the  elector  urging  him  to  come  to  the  rescue 
and  fix  lower  prices  by  law.  In  1524,  in  a  very  inter- 
esting little  book  on  Trade  and  Usury,  he  depicted  in 
detail  what  he  regarded  as  the  worst  evils  in  the  com- 


i;o  MARTIN  LUTHER 

mercial  life  of  the  day,  complaining  of  international 
trade,  which  only  impoverishes  a  country,  and  de- 
nouncing monopolies,  corners,  trusts,  buying  and  sell- 
ing on  margins,  and  the  like,  in  language  that  sounds 
very  familiar  to-day.  The  remedy,  he  thought,  lay 
wholly  in  the  hands  of  the  government. 

Kings  and  princes  should  look  into  the  matter  and 
prevent  such  practices  by  law.  But  I  hear  they  have  a 
share  in  them,  as  is  said  in  Isaiah,  "Your  princes  have 
become  the  companions  of  robbers."  They  hang  the 
thieves  who  have  stolen  a  gulden  or  less,  while  they  are 
hand  and  glove  with  those  who  rob  the  whole  world, 
according  to  the  proverb,  "Great  thieves  hang  little 
thieves." 

In  all  this  there  is  a  curious  mixture  of  wisdom  and 
naivete  which  is  perhaps  only  what  we  might  expect. 
Keen  sighted  as  he  was  for  the  evils  of  the  day  his 
training  and  experience  had  not  fitted  him  to  play  the 
role  of  a  statesman  or  economist  and  he  showed  his 
limitations  very  clearly.  Society  he  rightly  saw  was 
all  too  little  governed  by  Christian  principles,  but  like 
many  another  he  had  an  implicit  faith  in  the  possi- 
bility of  righting  all  wrongs  by  legislation  and  fondly 
imagined  every  evil  could  be  mended  by  restoring  the 
more  primitive  conditions  of  an  earlier  day. 

For  all  his  lack  of  worldly  knowledge  he  had  one 
merit  not  shared  by  all  venturing  into  unfamiliar  fields. 
He  recognized  his  own  ignorance.  "I  know,"  he 
wrote,  "that  I  have  sung  a  lofty  strain,  that  I  -have 
proposed  many  things  that  will  be  thought  impossible 
and  attacked  many  points  too  sharply.  But  what  was 
I  to  do?  I  was  bound  to  say  it.  If  I  had  the  power, 
this  is  what  I  should  do."  Thus  he  closes  his  discus- 
sion, and  the  words  from  such  a  man  are  very  signifi- 


THE  RUINS  OF  EBERNBURG,  THE  STRONGHOLD  OF 
FRANZ  VON  SICKINGEN 


From  an  old  print 
FRANZ  VON  SICKINGEN 


THE  NATIONAL  REFORMER          171 

cant.  Ordinarily  he  was  sure  enough  of  himself  and 
let  it  be  known  to  everybody.  Evidently  his  confidence 
was  not  mere  self-conceit,  the  fond  persuasion  that  he 
was  always  right.  It  was  a  confidence  felt  only  in  his 
native  sphere  and  justified  by  his  long  and  hard  experi- 
ence therein. 

The  Address  to  the  Nobility  produced  a  tremendous  t, 
sensation  and  had  an  enormous  sale.  Most  of  its  ideas 
had  been  expressed  many  times  before,  but  Luther  had 
his  own  inimitable  way  of  putting  things,  and  the  very 
fact  it  was  he  who  said  them  meant  a  great  deal  for 
the  circulation  of  the  book.  Men  were  already  listen- 
ing eagerly  to  all  he  had  to  say,  and  his  venture  into 
the  field  of  national  reform  met  with  a  wide  and  in- 
stant response.  It  is  not  recorded  that  the  work 
brought  him  reputation  as  a  statesman  and  led  princes 
to  seek  his  counsel  in  political  affairs,  but  it  did  show 
them  he  was  a  power  to  be  reckoned  with,  and  it  gave 
new  standing  to  the  cause  of  national  independence 
and  regeneration. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE   PROPHET   OF   A    NEW    FAITH 

AT  the  end  of  his  Address  to  the  German  Nobility 
iX  Luther  remarked :  "I  know  still  another  song  con- 
cerning Rome.  If  they  wish  to  hear  it  I  will  sing  it 
and  will  pitch  it  high.  Do  you  understand,  dear  Rome, 
what  I  mean?" 

This  new  work  appeared  a  few  weeks  later  under 
the  title  "The  Babylonian  Captivity  of  the  Church."  It 
dealt  with  the  traditional  sacramental  system,  repre- 
senting it  as  a  bondage  from  which  Christendom  must 
be  freed  if  the  needed  reformation  were  to  come. 
Unlike  the  former  work,  it  was  written  in  Latin,  as 
befitted  a  theological  discussion,  and  appealed  pri- 
marily to  theologians  instead  of  the  general  public. 
Doctrinally  it  was  far  and  away  the  most  radical  book 
Luther  had  yet  published,  and  was  alone  enough  to 
make  his  condemnation  for  heresy  imperative.  None 
of  his  other  works  so  excited  the  hostility  of  Catholic 
theologians,  or  drew  so  many  replies  from  them.  Even 
King  Henry  VIII  of  England  thought  it  worth  while 
to  write  an  answer  to  it,  for  which  he  was  rewarded 
by  the  pope  with  the  title  of  Defender  of  the  Faith 
and  by  Luther  with  one  of  the  most  scathing  and  in- 
sulting rejoinders  ever  addressed  to  a  king. 

The  sacramental  system  was  the  very  heart  of  tra- 
ditional Catholicism.  Supernatural  means  by  which 
alone  the  Church  dispensed  the  divine  grace  intrusted 

172 


THE  PROPHET  OF  A  NEW  FAITH    173 

to  her,  the  sacraments,  it  had  been  believed  since  the 
second  century,  were  absolutely  essential  to  salvation. 
As  their  validity  depended  ordinarily  upon  their  per- 
formance by  duly  ordained  priests,  Christians  were 
obliged  to  rely  altogether  upon  priestly  ministrations 
and  were  quite  helpless  alone.  The  authority  of  church 
and  hierarchy  over  the  faith  and  life  of  Christendom 
was  rooted  in  this  fact  and  to  deny  it  was  to  attack 
Catholicism  at  its  most  vital  spot.  Deny  it  Luther  did, 
and  with  emphasis.  Every  Christian,  he  claimed,  is 
truly  a  priest  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  need  depend  on 
no  one  else  for  divine  grace.  And  what  was  more, 
the  sacraments  themselves,  he  insisted,  are  mere  signs 
of  the  forgiving  love  of  God  in  Christ.  Unless  their 
message  be  believed  they  are  of  no  help,  and  if  it  be 
believed  without  them  they  may  be  dispensed  with. 
Thus  while  recognizing  their  value  as  aids  to  faith  he 
freed  Christians  from  slavish  dependence  on  them  and 
on  church  and  priesthood  as  well.  Never  was  man 
more  independent  of  external  and  factitious  means,  or 
franker  and  more  fearless  in  declaring  their  needless- 
ness.  Splendidly  regardless  of  consequences  either  to 
himself  or  to  others  he  proclaimed  his  message  of 
emancipation  in  ringing  terms. 

The  work  was  a  declaration  of  freedom  such  as 
alone  made  his  own  position  tenable.  It  was  of  a 
piece  with  his  sermon  on  the  ban,  published  two  years 
earlier,  and  in  harmony  with  the  religious  point  of  view 
attained  long  before  as  a  result  of  his  youthful  strug- 
gles in  the  convent.  Out  of  despair  due  to  a  vivid 
sense  of  the  wrath  of  God  he  had  been  rescued  by  the 
recognition  of  divine  love,  and  the  ensuing  peace  was 
the  salvation  he  sought.  A  present  reality  it  was,  not 
simply  a  future  hope,  a  state  of  mind  and  so  the  fruit 
of  faith  not  of  works.  To  one  thus  already  saved 


174  MARTIN  LUTHER 

sacraments  and  hierarchy  were  of  secondary  impor- 
tance. Though  Luther  long  remained  unconscious  of 
his  inner  independence  of  them,  when  the  conflict  came 
and  he  was  threatened  with  their  loss  he  discovered  he 
could  do  without  them,  and  the  discovery  proved  a  new 
charter  of  liberty  for  himself  and  in  the  end  for  mul- 
titudes of  others. 

That  charter  found  its  clearest  and  most  beautiful 
expression  in  a  wonderful  little  tract,  one  of  the 
world's  great  religious  classics,  published  almost  im- 
mediately after  the  work  on  the  sacraments  and  en- 
titled The  Freedom  of  a  Christian  Man.  At  its  very 
beginning  were  placed  the  paradoxical  statements : 

A  Christian  man  is  a  most  free  lord  of  all  things  and 
subject  to  no  one ;  a  Christian  man  is  a  most  dutiful  ser- 
vant of  all  things  and  subject  to  every  one. 

What  he  meant  by  the  former  appears  in  such  words 
as  these : 

Every  Christian  is  by  faith  so  exalted  above  all  things 
that  in  spiritual  power  he  is  completely  lord  of  all.  Noth- 
ing whatever  can  do  him  any  hurt,  but  all  things  are  sub- 
ject to  him  and  are  compelled  to  be  subservient  to  his 
salvation.  .  .  .  This  is  a  spiritual  power  ruling  in  the 
midst  of  enemies  and  mighty  in  the  midst  of  distresses. 
And  it  is  nothing  else  than  that  strength  is  made  perfect 
in  weakness,  and  in  all  things  I  am  able  to  gain  salvation, 
so  that  even  the  cross  and  death  are  compelled  to  serve 
me  and  work  together  for  salvation.  For  this  is  a  high 
and  illustrious  dignity,  a  true  and  almighty  power,  a 
spiritual  empire,  in  which  there  is  nothing  so  good,  noth- 
ing so  bad  as  not  to  work  together  for  my  good  if  only 
I  believe.  ...  A  Christian  man  needs  no  work,  no  law 
for  salvation,  for  by  faith  he  is  free  from  all  law  and 
in  perfect  freedom  does  gratuitously  all  he  does,  seeking 


THE  PROPHET  OF  A  NEW  FAITH    175 

neither  profit  nor  salvation,  but  only  what  is  well-pleasing 
to  God,  since  by  the  grace  of  God  he  is  already  satisfied 
and  saved  through  his  faith. 

And  what  he  meant  by  the  second  of  his  paradox- 
ical statements  appears  with  equal  clearness  in  the  fol- 
lowing passages : 

Though  he  is  thus  free  from  all  works  yet  he  ought 
again  to  empty  himself  of  this  liberty,  take  on  the  form 
of  a  servant,  be  made  in  the  likeness  of  men,  be  found  in 
fashion  as  a  man,  serve,  help,  and  in  every  way  act 
toward  his  neighbor  as  he  sees  that  God  through  Christ 
has  acted  and  is  acting  toward  him.  All  this  he  should 
do  freely  and  with  regard  to  nothing  but  the  good  pleas- 
ure of  God;  and  he  should  reason  thus:  Lo,  to  me,  an 
unworthy,  condemned,  and  contemptible  creature,  alto- 
gether without  merit,  my  God  of  His  pure  and  free  mercy 
has  given  in  Christ  all  the  riches  of  righteousness  and 
salvation,  so  that  I  am  no  longer  in  want  of  anything 
except  faith  to  believe  this  is  so.  For  such  a  Father  there- 
fore, who  has  overwhelmed  me  with  these  inestimable 
riches  of  His,  why  should  I  not  freely,  gladly,  with  a 
whole  heart  and  eager  devotion,  do  all  that  I  know  will 
be  pleasing  and  acceptable  in  his  sight?  I  will  therefore 
give  myself  as  a  sort  of  Christ  to  my  neighbor,  as  Christ 
has  given  himself  to  me,  and  will  do  nothing  in  this  life 
except  what  I  see  to  be  needful,  advantageous,  and  whole- 
some for  my  neighbor,  since  through  faith  I  abound  in 
all  good  things  in  Christ.  .  .  .  Man  does  not  live  for 
himself  alone  in  this  mortal  body,  in  order  to  work  on  its 
account,  but  also  for  all  men  on  earth ;  nay,  he  lives  only 
for  others  and  not  for  himself.  For  to  this  end  he  brings 
his  own  body  into  subjection  that  he  may  be  able  to  serve 
others  more  sincerely  and  freely.  ...  It  is  the  part  of 
a  Christian  to  take  care  of  his  body  for  the  very  purpose 
that  by  its  soundness  and  well-being  he  may  be  able  to 
labor  and  to  acquire  and  save  property  for  the  aid  of 


176  MARTIN  LUTHER 

those  who  are  in  want,  that  thus  the  strong  member  may 
serve  the  weak,  and  we  may  be  sons  of  God,  thoughtful 
and  busy  one  for  the  other,  bearing  one  another's  burdens 
and  so  fulfilling  the  law  of  Christ.  Behold,  here  is  the 
truly  Christian  life,  here  is  faith  really  working  by  love, 
when  it  applies  itself  with  joy  and  love  to  the  work  of 
freest  servitude,  in  which  it  serves  others  freely  and  spon- 
taneously, itself  abundantly  satisfied  with  the  fullness  and 
riches  of  its  own  faith. 

The  chief  fault  of  traditional  Catholic  ethics  was  its 
divided  ideal.  It  too  taught  devotion  to  others  and 
self-sacrificing  labor  for  their  good,  but  it  made  this 
simply  a  part  of  the  Christian's  duty.  Holiness  and 
righteousness  were  also  demanded  of  him,  and  fre- 
quently the  two  parallel  and  independent  ideals  seemed 
to  clash  and  one  had  to  be  sacrificed  to  the  other.  The 
great  significance  of  Luther's  ethical  teaching,  so 
clearly  enunciated  in  the  passages  just  quoted,  was  his 
subordination  of  all  human  duties  to  the  one  end  of 
human  service.  He  did  not  for  a  moment  lose  sight  of 
the  other  moral  virtues.  Purity,  righteousness,  tem- 
perance, frugality,  all  had  their  place,  but  as  means 
not  end.  That  one  may  better  serve  his  fellow-men, 
for  this  he  strives  to  be  a  better  man. 

The  effects  of  this  principle  were  epochal.  For  cen- 
turies the  ideal  Christian  life  had  been  commonly  iden- 
tified with  that  of  the  monk  or  nun,  who  lived  apart 
from  the  distractions  and  pleasures  of  the  world  in 
religious  devotion  and  in  the  exercise  of  rigorous  self- 
discipline.  To  be  in  the  midst  of  society,  to  engage 
in  worldly  occupations,  to  marry  and  enjoy  the  delights 
of  home,  all  this  was  legitimate,  but  less  noble  than  a 
life  of  celibacy  and  seclusion.  Other- worldliness  was 
the  dominant  note  of  traditional  13'hristian  piety.  Not 
to  make  a  man  a  good  citizen  of  this  world,  but  to  pre- 


THE  PROPHET  OF  A  NEW  FAITH    177 

pare  him  for  citizenship  in  another  was  thought  to  be 
the  supreme  aim  of  Christianity;  and  hence  the  more 
unworldly  this  life  could  be  made  the  more  Christian 
it  seemed.  In  opposition  to  this  Luther  taught  the 
sanctity  of  ordinary  human  callings.  The  Christian 
is  already  a  saved  man,  and  his  life  on  earth  is  as 
sacred  as  in  heaven.  He  may  express  as  truly  here 
as  there  his  character  as  a  son  of  God,  not  by  with- 
drawing from  the  world  and  giving  himself  wholly  to 
religious  practices,  but  by  doing  the  daily  task  faith- 
fully and  joyfully,  with  trust  in  God  and  devotion  to 
His  will. 

In  how  practical  and  homely  a  fashion  Luther  ap- 
plied this  principle  to  every-day  life  is  seen  in  such 
passages  as  the  following,  culled  from  one  or  another 
of  his  sermons : 

What  you  do  in  your  house  is  worth  as  much  as  if  you 
did  it  up  in  Heaven  for  our  Lord  God.  For  what  we  do 
in  our  calling  here  on  earth  in  accordance  with  His  word 
and  command  He  counts  as  if  it  were  done  in  heaven  for 
Him.  ...  In  whatever  calling  God  has  placed  you  do 
not  abandon  it  when  you  become  a  Christian.  If  you  are 
a  servant,  a  maid,  a  workman,  a  master,  a  housewife,  a 
mayor,  a  prince,  do  whatever  your  position  demands. 
For  it  does  not  interfere  with  your  Christian  faith  and 
you  can  serve  God  rightly  in  any  vocation.  .  .  .  There- 
fore we  should  accustom  ourselves  to  think  of  our  posi- 
tion and  work  as  sacred  and  well-pleasing  to  God,  not  on 
its  own  account,  but  because  of  the  word  and  the  faith 
from  which  our  obedience  flows.  No  Christian  should 
despise  his  position  if  he  is  living  in  accordance  with  the 
word  of  God,  but  should  say,  "I  believe  in  Jesus  Christ, 
and  do  as  the  ten  commandments  teach,  and  pray  that 
our  dear  Lord  God  may  help  me  thus  to  do."  That  is  a 
right  holy  life,  and  cannot  be  made  holier  even  if  one 
fast  oneself  to  death.  ...  It  looks  like  a  great  thing 

12 


1 78  MARTIN  LUTHER 

when  a  monk  renounces  everything,  goes  into  a  cloister, 
lives  a  life  of  asceticism,  fasts,  watches,  prays  and  the  like. 
Works  in  abundance  are  there.  But  God's  command  is 
lacking,  and  so  they  cannot  be  gloried  in  as  if  done  for 
Him.  On  the  other  hand  it  looks  like  a  small  thing  when 
a  maid  cooks,  and  cleans,  and  does  other  housework.  But 
because  God's  command  is  there,  even  such  a  lowly  em- 
ployment must  be  praised  as  a  service  of  God,  far  sur- 
passing the  holiness  and  asceticism  of  all  monks  and  nuns. 
Here  there  is  no  command  of  God.  But  there  God's  com- 
mand is  fulfilled,  that  one  should  honor  Father  and 
Mother  and  help  in  the  care  of  the  home. 

The  theme  of  Luther's  tract  on  Christian  freedom 
was  not  even  liberty  as  an  ultimate  end,  as  though  it 
were  a  good  in  itself,  without  regard  to  the  use  made 
of  it,  but  liberty  as  a  means  to  the  service  of  others. 
Just  because  a  Christian  is  a  most  free  lord  of  all  and 
subject  to  no  one,  he  can  be  a  most  dutiful  servant  of 
all  and  subject  to  every  one.  It  was  a  profound  ob- 
servation of  Luther's,  based  upon  his  own  monastic 
experience,  that  so  long  as  one  is  troubled  and  anxious 
about  one's  own  fate  single-minded  devotion  to  others 
is  very  difficult.  To  be  freed  from  concern  for  one- 
self, he  felt,  was  the  first  requisite  of  genuine  Christian 
living,  for  the  Christian  life  meant  not  chiefly  growth 
in  character  and  piety,  but  unselfish  labor  for  others' 
good.  As  he  said  later  in  one  of  his  sermons :  "What 
is  it  to  serve  God  and  do  His  will  ?  Nothing  else  than 
to  show  mercy  to  one's  neighbor,  for  it  is  our  neigh- 
bor needs  our  service,  God  in  heaven  needs  it  not." 

Religion  he  saw,  as  commonly  understood,  had 
added  burdens  instead  of  removing  them.  From  such 
burdens  he  would  set  men  free,  making  religion  wholly 
subservient  to  common  human  duty  and  service.  And 
he  would  set  them  free  not  onlv  from  the  trammels  of 


THE  PROPHET  OF  A  NEW  FAITH    179 

religious  obligation — skepticism  and  unbelief  might  do 
that  equally  well— but  also  from  anxiety  about  the 
present,  by  giving  them  faith  in  their  Father  God, 
whose  world  this  is  and  in  whose  hands  all  things  are 
working  for  His  children's  good.  Freedom  from  the 
fear  both  of  present  and  of  future  was  Luther's  gospel, 
a  freedom  making  possible  the  living  of  a  serene  and 
confident  and  wholesome  life  of  usefulness. 

The  contrast  between  all  this  and  traditional  Cath- 
olic thought  was  as  wide  as  the  poles.  Catholicism  pro- 
ceeded on  the  assumption  that  man  is  naturally  bad 
and  needs  to  be  held  under  strict  control  to  keep  him 
from  expressing  his  badness  in  wicked  deeds.  To  be- 
come confident,  to  gain  the  assurance  of  salvation,  to 
be  set  free  from  fear  of  eternal  punishment  was  re- 
garded as  the  most  dangerous  thing  in  the  world.  That 
life  here  is  a  probation  for  the  life  to  come  must  be 
kept  constantly  before  the  minds  of  men  lest  they 
grow  careless  and  indifferent.  Fear,  not  peace,  is  alone 
safe  for  fallen  and  corrupt  humanity. 

To  Luther,  on  the  contrary,  a  state  of  fear  and 
apprehension  made  true  Christian  living,  ideal  living 
of  any  kind,  quite  impossible.  Virtue  must  be  disin- 
terested, or  it  is  not  true  virtue.  The  man  who  is 
righteous  for  the  sake  of  gaining  reward  or  escaping 
punishment  is  not  really  righteous.  Such  selfish  mo- 
tives may  be  necessary  for  the  natural  man,  but  the 
Christian  is  moved  by  an  altogether  different  impulse. 
Having  seen  the  vision  of  God's  gracious  love  in 
Jesus  Christ  he  is  eager  to  show  his  gratitude  in  ser- 
vice. He  does  not  need  the  pressure  of  fear  to  keep 
him  right ;  he  needs  to  be  liberated  from  fear  in  order 
that  he  may  be  able  to  give  himself  unselfishly  and 
undividedly  to  the  doing  of  God's  will.  From  such 
fear  the  gospel  of  a  present  salvation  through  faith  in 


i8o  MARTIN  LUTHER 

God  had  set  Luther  himself  free,  and  he  preached  it  to 
the  world  as  the  great  liberator  from  bondage  of  every 
kind. 

Control  to  keep  men  from  being  themselves  Cathol- 
icism offered;  freedom  to  be  themselves  Luther 
preached.  Not  trust  in  man  led  him  thus  to  set  man 
free,  but  trust  in  the  gospel.  He  retained  the  tradi- 
tional estimate  of  the  native  depravity  of  the  human 
race,  but  he  had  so  tremendous  a  confidence  in  the 
power  of  the  revelation  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  that  he 
was  sure  where  it  was  apprehended  men  would  haste 
to  do  God's  will.  The  experiences  of  later  years  did 
much  to  weaken  this  confidence.  The  great  disillusion- 
ment of  his  life  was  the  discovery  that  the  preaching 
of  the  true  gospel  often  left  men  no  better  than  it 
found  them.  But  he  never  lost  faith  in  the  gospel  it- 
self, and  to  the  end  of  his  days  he  regarded  it  as  his 
great  work  and  his  supreme  duty  to  bring  it  to  the 
knowledge  of  men  in  ever  clearer  and  more  convincing 
form. 

Not  in  the  national  reformer  but  in  the  religious 
prophet  we  are  to  see  the  real  and  permanent  Luther. 
While  he  might  concern  himself  with  questions  of 
moral,  social,  and  economic  reform,  the  one  thing 
which  always  interested  him  most  was  his  gospel  of  a 
present  salvation  through  faith  in  God,  bringing  peace 
and  confidence  and  spiritual  freedom.  To  the  end  of 
his  life  he  was  above  all  the  prophet  of  this  faith. 


AETHLRNA  IFSL  5.  ,--\  LVTHEBW 

EXFRIMJT  AT  W1TVJ  CERA    LYCAE   OCClDVOf 
AA.-  D  -XX 


From  a  copperplate  engraving  by  Lucas  Crauacli 


LUTHER  IN  1520 
HIS  EARLIEST  KNOWN  LIKENESS 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  FINAL  BREAK  WITH  ROME 

THE  year  1520,  which  saw  the  publication  of 
Luther's  greatest  reformation  tracts,  witnessed 
also  his  complete  and  permanent  break  with  the  Roman 
Church.  At  the  Leipsic  debate  he  had  shown  himself 
sharply  at  variance  with  it,  and  while  Miltitz  and 
others  were  still  hoping  for  reconciliation  Eck  saw  the 
hope  was  vain  and  no  course  left  the  church  but  to 
condemn  the  dangerous  heretic.  Early  in  the  spring 
of  1520  Eck  betook  himself  to  Rome  with  the  express 
purpose  of  convincing  the  authorities  of  the  need  of 
decisive  action.  With  devotion  to  the  faith  was  per- 
haps associated,  as  many  of  his  contemporaries 
believed,  the  desire  for  personal  glory  and  aggrandize- 
ment, but  his  conduct  was  consistent  throughout  and 
much  more  to  his  credit  than  the  vacillating  and  tem- 
porizing policy  of  the  holy  see.  To  be  sure  it  was 
possible  for  him  as  a  mere  theologian  to  disregard 
considerations  that  must  weigh  heavily  with  the 
Roman  authorities.  They  too  knew  that  Luther  was 
a  heretic,  but  he  had  the  backing  of  the  most  impor- 
tant prince  in  Germany  and  of  an  aroused  public  senti- 
ment not  to  be  lightly  disregarded.  Month  after  month 
they  waited,  hoping  that  by  the  use  of  pressure  of  one 
kind  and  another  they  might  yet  succeed  in  forcing  him 
to  recant,  or  that  his  growing  radicalism  might  bring 
reaction  in  Germany  and  cost  him  the  elector's  support. 
Finally  formal  process  was  once  more  instituted  and 

181 


1 82  MARTIN  LUTHER 

condemnation  definitely  settled  upon.  Realizing  the 
gravity  of  the  situation  the  curia  went  about  the 
matter  in  the  most  careful  way.  No  such  summary 
proceedings  as  had  been  indulged  in  a  couple  of  years 
before  were  now  thought  of.  Nothing  could  better 
show  the  strength  of  the  feeling  against  the  papacy  in 
Germany  than  the  hesitation  of  the  Roman  authorities 
at  this  time.  Even  after  a  carefully  selected  commis- 
sion was  at  work  upon  the  matter,  as  late  as  May, 
1520,  its  sessions  were  suspended,  when  a  report 
reached  the  Vatican  that  there  was  still  some  hope  of 
an  easier  way  out  of  the  difficulty,  and  the  decisive 
step  was  finally  taken  only  in  June,  when  the  hope  was 
seen  to  be  groundless. 

The  papal  bull  Exurge  Domine,  published  on  the 
fifteenth  of  that  month,  condemned  forty-one  proposi- 
tions drawn  from  Luther's  writings,  forbade  the  read- 
ing of  his  books  and  called  upon  Christians  everywhere 
to  burn  them,  threatened  with  the  ban  everybody  who 
should  support  or  protect  him,  suspended  him  from 
the  ministry,  and  announced  his  definitive  excommuni- 
cation, if  he  did  not  repent  and  recant  within  sixty  days 
after  the  publication  of  the  bull  in  Germany.  As  is  apt 
to  be  the  case,  the  document  gave  little  hint  of  Luther's 
real  interest  or  of  the  fundamental  differences  between 
him  and  the  church.  Propositions  concerning  the 
sacraments,  indulgences,  excommunication,  the  author- 
ity of  the  pope,  the  condemnation  of  Hus,  free  will, 
purgatory,  and  the  mendicant  orders,  were  condemned, 
as  was  also  Luther's  statement  that  to  burn  heretics  is 
against  the  will  of  the  Spirit.  The  list  of  errors  might 
easily  have  been  made  more  formidable  by  any  one 
intimately  acquainted  with  the  reformer's  writings,  but 
it  seemed  to  the  papal  commission  quite  sufficient  for 
the  purpose. 


THE  FINAL  BREAK  WITH  ROME      183 

The  bull  clearly  reflected  the  difficulties  of  the  situa- 
tion. In  its  phraseology  it  was  a  mild  document,  in 
striking  contrast  with  Luther's  heated  denunciations 
of  the  holy  see.  Full  of  pathos  it  was  too,  and  almost 
apologetic  in  tone : 

So  far  as  concerns  Martin  himself,  good  God,  what 
have  we  omitted,  what  have  we  not  done,  what  have 
we  neglected  of  paternal  charity,  that  we  might  recall 
him  from  his  errors?  After  we  had  summoned  him, 
desiring  to  deal  more  mildly  with  him,  we  urged  and 
exhorted  him,  through  our  legate  and  by  letter,  to 
renounce  his  errors,  or  to  come  without  any  hesitation 
or  fear— for  perfect  love  should  cast  out  fear— and 
after  the  example  of  our  Saviour  and  the  blessed 
Apostle  Paul,  talk  not  secretly  but  openly  and  face  to 
face.  To  this  end  we  offered  him  a  safe  conduct  and 
money  for  the  journey.  If  he  had  done  this  he  would 
certainly,  we  believe,  have  seen  his  errors  and  repented. 
Nor  would  he  have  found  so  many  evils  in  the  Roman 
curia  which,  relying  upon  the  empty  rumors  of  its  ene- 
mies, he  vituperates  much  more  than  is  seemly.  We 
should  also  have  taught  him  more  clearly  than  light  that 
the  holy  Roman  pontiffs,  though  he  abuses  them  beyond 
all  modesty,  have  never  erred  in  their  canons  or  consti- 
tutions. 

Luther's  disobedience  and  contumacy  were  then  re- 
cited and  his  appeal  to  a  future  council  was  condemned 
with  special  emphasis  in  accordance  with  a  constitu- 
tion of  Pius  II  and  Julius  II  threatening  any  one  thus 
appealing  with  punishment  for  heresy. 

With  a  singular  disregard  for  the  demands  of  the 
situation,  betrayed  not  infrequently  in  the  curia's  deal- 
ings with  Luther,  Eck  was  appointed  one  of  two 
commissioners  to  publish  the  bull  in  Germany.  At 
best  it  was  bound  to  be  unpopular  there,  and  Eck's 


1 84  MARTIN  LUTHER 

connection  with  it  served  only  to  discredit  it  the  more, 
giving  currency  to  the  belief  that  it  was  a  partizan 
document,  wrung  from  the  papal  see  by  Luther's  prin- 
cipal antagonist.  To  make  matters  worse  Eck  was  given 
authority  to  insert  in  the  bull  the  names  of  a  limited 
number  of  Luther's  supporters,  an  opportunity  he  used 
to  revenge  himself  upon  some  of  his  own  antagonists, 
among  them  the  famous  humanist  Willibald  Pirk- 
heimer,  author  of  the  stinging  satire  "Der  abgehobelte 
Eck." 

As  might  have  been  expected,  the  reception  ac- 
corded the  bull  in  Germany  was  far  from  cordial. 
Coming  "bearded,  bulled,  and  moneyed,"  as  Luther  put 
it,  Eck  found  himself  almost  everywhere  an  object  of 
hatred  and  contumely.  In  many  places  the  bull  was 
treated  with  open  contempt,  in  others  its  publication 
was  delayed  or  prevented  altogether  on  technical 
grounds  of  one  kind  and  another. 

To  be  sure,  there  were  those  who  welcomed  it 
warmly,  and  here  and  there  its  provisions  were  put 
into  immediate  effect.  Whole  wagon-loads  of  Luther's 
books  were  burned  at  Cologne,  Mayence,  and  some 
other  towns.  It  had  also  the  desired  effect  in  leading 
not  a  few  of  his  adherents,  real  or  supposed,  to  re- 
nounce all  connection  with  him.  Eck  had  the  satis- 
faction, for  instance,  of  seeing  Pirkheimer,  Spengler, 
and  others  of  the  Nuremberg  group  sue  humbly  for 
pardon  and  seek  his  good  offices  in  their  behalf. 

Staupitz,  although  not  named  in  the  bull,  had  to 
suffer  for  his  known  sympathy  with  the  Wittenberg 
heretic.  The  relations  between  the  two  had  been 
strained  for  some  time.  Luther's  radicalism  greatly 
distressed  the  older  man  and  led  to  a  growing  estrange- 
ment. Already  in  the  spring  of  1519  the  reformer  com- 
plained in  a  letter  to  Lang  that  Staupitz  had  completely 


THE  FINAL  BREAK  WITH  ROME      185 

forgotten  him,  and  in  the  fall  of  the  same  year  he  ap- 
pealed to  his  beloved  superior  in  the  following  affecting- 
words  : 

You  forsake  me  too  much.  I  have  sorrowed  for  you 
like  a  weaned  child  for  its  mother.  I  beseech  you  praise 
the  Lord  even  in  me  a  sinner.  Last  night  I  dreamed  of 
you.  I  thought  you  were  leaving  me,  and  as  I  was  weep- 
ing and  lamenting  most  bitterly,  you  waved  your  hand 
and  told  me  to  be  quiet  for  you  would  return. 

For  a  time,  indeed,  communication  was  resumed  be- 
tween the  two  old  friends  but  was  soon  interrupted 
again.  In  August,  feeling  unequal  to  the  strain  put 
upon  him  by  his  position  as  vicar  in  the  troublous  days 
upon  which  the  Augustinian  order  had  fallen,  Staupitz 
resigned  his  office,  and  soon  afterward  retired  to  Salz- 
burg, where  he  ultimately  joined  the  Dominicans.  He 
hoped  his  retirement  would  bring  him  peace,  but  he 
was  not  allowed  to  escape  so  easily.  The  pope  called 
upon  him  to  join  in  the  condemnation  of  Luther's  here- 
sies. Sorely  stricken  by  the  necessity  laid  upon  him, 
he  wrote  pathetically  to  his  successor,  Wenceslaus 
Link,  "Martin  has  undertaken  a  dangerous  task  and  is 
carrying  it  on  with  high  courage  under  the  guidance 
of  God.  But  I  stammer,  and  am  a  child  in  need  of 
milk." 

Finally  he  yielded,  at  least  so  far  as  to  declare  his 
complete  submission  to  the  pope,  and  with  this  the 
curia  was  satisfied.  The  following  protest  from  Lu- 
ther shows  how  deeply  the  younger  man  was  grieved 
by  the  weakness  of  his  old  superior: 

This  is  no  time  for  fear,  but  for  crying  aloud,  when 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  condemned,  cast  off,  and  blas- 
phemed. As  you  exhorted  me  to  humility  I  exhort  you 
to  pride.  You  have  too  much  humility  as  I  have  too 


1 86  MARTIN  LUTHER 

much  pride.  The  affair  indeed  is  serious.  We  see  Christ 
suffering.  If  hitherto  we  were  obliged  to  be  silent  and 
humble,  now  when  our  most  excellent  Saviour,  who  has 
given  himself  for  us,  is  mocked  in  all  the  world,  I  beseech 
you  shall  we  not  fight  for  him  ?  Shall  we  not  expose  our 
lives?  My  father,  the  danger  is  greater  than  many  sup- 
pose. Here  the  gospel  word  applies,  Whosoever  confess- 
eth  me  before  men,  him  will  I  also  confess  before  my 
Father. 

How  little  Luther  was  himself  disturbed  or  thrown 
off  his  balance  by  the  pope's  condemnation  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  his  beautiful  tract  on  The  Freedom  of 
a  Christian  Man,  in  all  its  noble  serenity,  was  written 
just  at  the  time  Eck  was  publishing  the  papal  bull  in 
Germany.  The  tract  was  dedicated  to  the  pope  in  a 
long  and  remarkable  letter  penned  at  the  solicitation 
of  Miltitz,  and  at  his  request  dated  back  from  October 
to  September  6  that  it  might  not  seem  to  have  been 
called  forth,  as  it  actually  was  not,  by  the  bull  itself. 
The  letter  was  of  a  very  different  tone  from  the  two 
previously  addressed  to  the  pope.  While  protesting 
his  regard  for  Leo's  own  person,  Luther  spoke  in 
sharp  terms  of  the  corruption  of  the  papal  see,  and  of 
the  evils  it  was  bringing  upon  Christendom.  The 
humble  monk  had  traveled  far  who  could  calmly  ad- 
dress the  supreme  head  of  the  church,  the  world's 
greatest  potentate,  in  such  words  as  the  following : 

Therefore,  Leo,  my  father,  beware  of  listening  to  those 
sirens  who  make  you  out  to  be  not  simply  a  man,  but 
partly  a  god,  so  that  you  can  command  and  require  what- 
ever you  will.  It  will  not  happen  so,  nor  will  you  pre- 
vail. A  servant  of  servants  you  are,  and  above  all  men 
in  a  most  pitiable  and  perilous  position.  Let  not  those 
deceive  you  who  pretend  you  are  lord  of  the  world ;  who 
will  not  allow  any  one  to  be  a  Christian  without  your 


THE  FINAL  BREAK  WITH  ROME      187 

authority ;  who  babble  of  your  having  power  over  heaven, 
hell,  and  purgatory.  They  are  your  enemies  and  are  seek- 
ing your  soul  to  destroy  it,  as  Isaiah  says,  "My  people, 
they  that  call  thee  blessed  are  themselves  deceiving  thee." 
They  are  in  error  who  raise  you  above  councils  and  the 
universal  church.  They  are  in  error  who  attribute  to  you 
alone  the  right  of  interpreting  Scripture.  All  these  are 
seeking  to  set  up  their  own  impieties  in  the  church  under 
your  name,  and  alas,  Satan  has  gained  much  through 
them  in  the  time  of  your  predecessors.  In  short,  believe 
not  those  who  exalt  you,  but  those  who  humiliate  you. 

The  arrival  of  the  papal  bull  in  Wittenberg  was    \f 
greeted  with  joy  by  Luther  and  taken  as  a  summons  to 
renewed  conflict.     On  the  twentieth  of  October  he 
wrote  a  friend : 

You  would  scarcely  believe  how  pleased  I  am  that  ene- 
mies rise  up  against  me  more  than  ever.  For  I  am  never 
prouder  or  bolder  than  when  I  dare  to  displease  them. 
Let  them  be  doctors,  bishops,  or  princes,  what  difference 
does  it  make?  If  the  word  of  God  were  not  attacked  by 
them  it  would  not  be  God's  word. 

At  first  he  pretended  to  think  the  bull  a  forgery  of 
Eck's  and  poured  out  the  vials  of  his  wrath  upon  it  in 
a  tract  entitled  "The  New  Eckian  Bulls  and  Lies."  A 
little  later,  accepting  it  as  genuine,  he  commented  upon 
it  briefly  in  a  pamphlet,  "Against  the  Bull  of  Anti- 
christ/' and  at  the  elector's  request,  at  greater  length, 
in  his  important  "Ground  and  Reason  of  all  the  Arti- 
cles unjustly  condemned  in  the  Roman  Bull."  In  the 
latter  work  he  said : 

Even  if  it  were  true,  as  they  assert,  that  I  have  put  my- 
self forward  on  my  own  responsibility,  they  would  not  be 
excused  thereby.  Who  knows  whether  God  has  called  and 
awakened  me  for  this?  Let  them  fear  Him  and  beware 


1 88  MARTIN  LUTHER 

lest  they  despise  God  in  me.  ...  I  do  not  say  I  am  a 
prophet,  but  I  do  say  they  have  all  the  greater  reason  to 
fear  I  am  one,  the  more  they  despise  me  and  esteem  them- 
selves. If  I  am  not  a  prophet  I  am  at  any  rate  sure  the 
word  of  God  is  with  me  and  not  with  them,  for  I  always 
have  the  Bible  on  my  side,  they  only  their  own  doctrine. 
It  is  on  this  account  I  have  the  courage  to  fear  them  so 
little,  much  as  they  despise  and  persecute  me. 


Both  of  these  pamphlets  appeared  in  Latin  as  well 
as  German,  and  in  referring  to  the  longer  one,  in  a 
letter  to  Spalatin,  Luther  defended  the  greater  severity 
of  the  Latin  version  with  the  remark  that  it  seemed 
necessary  "to  introduce  a  little  salt  for  Latin  stom- 
achs/' 

On  November  17  he  renewed  his  appeal  from  the 
pope  to  a  general  council  declaring,  in  his  usual  violent 
fashion,  that  the  former  was  an  unrighteous  judge,  a 
heretic  and  apostate,  an  enemy  of  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
and  a  slanderer  of  church  and  council.  He  also  called 
upon  emperors,  princes,  and  all  civil  officials  to  support 
his  appeal  and  oppose  what  he  styled  the  unchristian 
conduct  of  the  pope. 

Finally,  on  December  10,  he  broke  permanently  with 
the  papal  see  and  gave  dramatic  expression  to  his  re- 
nunciation of  the  pope's  authority  by  publicly  burning 
the  bull  and  the  canon  law  in  the  presence  of  a  large 
concourse  of  professors  and  students.  Melanchthon 
announced  the  event  in  the  following  placard,  posted 
upon  the  door  of  the  City  Church : 

Whoever  is  devoted  to  gospel  truth,  let  him  be  on 
hand  at  nine  o'clock  by  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Cross, 
outside  the  walls,  where  according  to  ancient  and  apos- 
tolic custom  the  impious  books  of  papal  law  and  scho- 
lastic theology  will  be  given  to  the  flames.  For  the 


, 


From  a  carbon  print  by  Braun  &  Co. 
PHILIP  MELANCHTHON.       FROM  A  CRAYON  DRAWING  BY  HANS  HOLBEIN 


THE  FINAL  BREAK  WITH  ROME      189 

audacity  of  the  enemies  of  the  gospel  has  gone  so  far  as 
to  burn  the  devout  and  evangelical  books  of  Luther. 
Come,  reverent  and  studious  youth,  to  this  pious  and 
religious  spectacle,  for  perhaps  now  is  the  time  when 
antichrist  shall  be  revealed. 

In  a  defense  published  soon  afterward  Luther  jus- 
tified the  burning  of  the  canon  law  because  it  taught 
among  other  things  the  supremacy  of  the  pope  and 
his  absolute  authority  over  Bible,  church,  and  Chris- 
tian conscience.  Again,  as  so  often,  there  was  re- 
vealed the  kinship  in  principle  between  his  revolt  and 
the  many  other  uprisings  against  unlimited  and  uncon- 
stitutional monarchy  through  which  freedom  has  been 
won  for  the  modern  world. 

Luther's  bold  act  was  not  the  result  of  a  sudden  and 
hasty  impulse.  He  had  announced  his  intention 
months  before,  and  though  the  project  was  known  to 
the  elector  and  many  friends,  no  objection  seems  to 
have  been  made  by  any  of  them.  Writing  about  it  to 
Staupitz  he  said  he  had  done  the  deed  in  trembling  and 
prayer,  but  after  it  was  over  felt  more  pleased  than  at 
any  other  act  of  his  life. 

Speaking  of  the  matter  to  the  students  the  next  day, 
he  told  them,  according  to  the  report  of  one  of  his 
hearers,  that  salvation  was  impossible  for  those  sub- 
mitting to  the  rule  of  the  pope ;  and  in  March  he  wrote 
a  friend :  "I  am  persuaded  of  this,  that  unless  a  man 
fight  with  all  his  might,  and  if  need  be  unto  death, 
against  the  statutes  and  laws  of  the  pope  and  bishops, 
he  cannot  be  saved."  This  soon  became  a  common 
feeling  among  his  adherents.  From  the  assurance  that 
salvation  is  possible  apart  from  the  pope  both  he  and 
they  went  on  to  the  still  more  radical  belief  that  it  was 
impossible  with  the  pope.  The  latter  was  not  a  logical 
deduction  from  the  former.  It  was  only  the  instinctive 


MARTIN  LUTHER 

repayment  of  condemnation  by  condemnation.  But  it 
found  its  justification  in  the  conviction,  long  growing 
and  now  full  blown,  that  the  pope  was  antichrist.  The 
basis  was  thus  given,  not  for  the  possibility  merely,  but 
for  the  necessity  of  a  new  church.  Catholic  exclusive- 
ness  was  matched  by  Lutheran,  and  the  new  movement 
was  prepared  to  meet  the  old  on  its  own  ground.  Prot- 
estants have  happily  long  outgrown  the  bitterness  and 
narrowness  of  the  early  days,  but  it  may  well  be 
doubted  whether  anything  less  would  have  sufficed 
then  to  stand  the  strain. 

On  January  3,  1521,  the  period  of  grace  named  in 
the  previous  bull  having  more  than  elapsed,  the  pope 
took  formal  action  against  Luther  in  the  bull  Decet 
Romanum  Pontificem,  pronouncing  him  excommuni- 
cate, declaring  him  guilty  of  the  crime  of  lese-majesty, 
and  condemning  him  to  all  the  spiritual  and  temporal 
penalties  imposed  upon  heretics  by  the  canons  of  the 
church. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  DIET  OF  WORMS 

IN  excommunicating  Luther  the  pope  had  done  his 
worst.  It  remained  to  be  seen  whether  his  action 
would  be  given  effect  by  the  civil  power.  In  ordinary 
circumstances  there  would  have  been  no  doubt.  To  be 
condemned  as  a  heretic  meant  certain  death  at  the 
hands  either  of  the  ecclesiastical  or  civil  government. 
But  the  present  case  was  unusual.  Luther  had  the  back- 
ing of  the  most  important  prince  in  Germany,  the  sup- 
port of  a  large  body  of  nobles,  the  confidence  of  many 
of  the  lower  clergy,  and  the  devotion  of  great  masses  of 
the  population.  Quite  apart  from  sympathy  with  him 
and  his  views  it  was  widely  felt  that  his  appeal  from  the 
pope  to  a  council  should  have  been  heeded,  and  there 
were  those  who  doubted  whether  the  pope  after  all  had 
the  right  to  condemn  any  one  for  heresy  without  con- 
ciliar  support.  The  situation  was  very  complicated. 
The  outcome  was  by  no  means  -certain,  all  the  less  so 
in  view  of  the  diverse  political  interests  represented  in 
the  empire.  It  was  just  the  kind  of  a  case,  beset  suffi- 
ciently with  doubt,  to  offer  the  best  possible  excuse  for 
political  bargaining,  and  the  emperor  and  princes  made 
good  use  of  the  opportunity. 

In  January,  1521,  the  first  imperial  diet  of  Charles's 
reign  met  in  the  free  city  of  Worms,  one  of  the  most 
ancient  and  famous  towns  of  Germany,  situated  on  the 
left  bank  of  the  upper  Rhine.  There  is  still  extant  a 

191 


192  MARTIN  LUTHER 

remarkable  series  of  despatches  addressed  to  the  Vice- 
Chancellor  at  Rome  by  the  papal  legate  Jerome  Ale- 
ander,  containing  a  vivid  account  of  the  diet  itself 
and  an  interesting  picture  of  the  general  situation. 
The  following  facts  and  impressions  reported  by 
Aleander  are  perhaps  worth  repeating.  Legions  of 
poor  noblemen  under  Hutten's  lead  were  enlisted 
against  the  pope,  and  the  great  majority  of  lawyers, 
canonists,  grammarians,  poets,  priests,  and  monks,  to- 
gether with  the  masses  of  the  common  people,  in  fact, 
nine  tenths  of  all  Germany,  were  on  Luther's  side,  and 
the  other  tenth  against  the  curia.  Even  where  the 
Wittenberg  professor  was  not  understood,  he  was  sup- 
ported because  of  the  general  hatred  of  Rome.  Multi- 
tudes thought  they  could  remain  good  Christians  and 
orthodox  Catholics  while  renouncing  allegiance  to  the 
pope.  Even  those  opposed  to  Luther,  including  the 
greatest  princes  and  prelates,  dared  not  come  out 
against  him  for  fear  of  Hutten  and  Sickingen,  every- 
where recognized  as  his  allies.  No  books  but  his  were 
sold  in  Worms,  and  his  picture  was  everywhere  to  be 
seen,  often  with  the  Holy  Ghost  hovering  over  his 
head.  The  people  thought  him  sinless  and  infallible 
and  attributed  miraculous  power  to  him.  Only  the 
emperor  was  on  the  side  of  Rome.  If  he  were  to  yield 
in  the  least  all  Germany  would  fall  away  from  the 
papacy.  And  even  he  hesitated  to  bring  pressure  to 
bear  upon  the  princes  out  of  consideration  for  the 
Elector  of  Saxony  and  from  a  desire  to  retain  in  his 
own  hands  the  means  of  inducing  the  pope  to  yield 
to  his  wishes  in  other  matters. 

We  are  reminded  in  this  connection  that  some  time 
before,  while  Charles  was  still  in  the  Netherlands,  his 
ambassador  at  Rome  advised  him  to  show  favor  to  a 
certain  Martin  Luther  whom  the  pope  greatly  feared. 


THE  DIET  OF  WORMS  193 

We  get  also  in  these  despatches  a  frank  account  of 
the  negotiations  carried  on  and  the  devious  means  em- 
ployed by  Aleander  and  his  fellow  legate  Caracciolo 
in  their  efforts  to  secure  Luther's  condemnation  and 
maintain  the  authority  of  Rome.  Flattery,  threats, 
and  bribery  were  freely  used,  and  Aleander  did  not 
hesitate  to  avow  his  own  falsehoods  for  the  good  of 
the  cause.  A  most  interesting  picture  it  is  of  the  skil- 
ful use  of  political  methods  such  as  have  been  employed 
in  every  age  of  the  world  and  for  all  sorts  of  ends. 

Aleander  complained  frequently  of  his  own  unpopu- 
larity and  the  shabby  treatment  accorded  him  by  the 
populace,  causing  him  often  to  fear  for  his  life.  At 
the  same  time  he  felt  called  upon  to  defend  himself 
against  the  accusation  of  living  voluptuously  and  luxu- 
riously, averring  that  he  was  so  poorly  housed  as  nearly 
to  freeze  to  death  and  had  had  no  new  clothes  for  ten 
years.  In  general  his  reports,  at  least  during  the 
earlier  part  of  his  stay  in  Worms,  were  gloomy  and 
despondent  enough.  It  may  well  be  that  he  exagger- 
ated the  difficulties  in  order  to  enhance  the  value  of  his 
services,  but  his  account  bears  for  the  most  part  the 
marks  of  truth  and  is  a  fairly  accurate  picture  of  the 
situation  from  a  Roman  point  of  view. 

The  despatches  also  contain  some  interesting  pen 
portraits  of  the  leading  actors  in  the  great  events  of 
those  weeks.  Luther,  the  antichrist,  as  Aleander  calls 
him,  is  of  course  spoken  of  with  uniform  hatred  and 
contempt.  A  hard  drinker,  and  too  much  of  an  igno- 
ramus to  be  the  author  of  the  books  ascribed  to  him, 
he  is  represented  as  merely  a  tool  of  Hutten  and  his 
associates,  like  them  interested  to  overthrow  all  author- 
ity, civil  as  well  as  ecclesiastical.  Hutten  himself  would 
like  to  be  the  chief  leader  of  the  whole  movement  if  he 
could  only  count  on  the  support  of  the  people  as  Luther 

13 


194  MARTIN  LUTHER 

can.  The  real  motive  underlying  all  his  efforts  and 
those  of  his  followers  is  the  desire  to  seize  for  them- 
selves the  property  of  the  clergy.  Sickingen,  a  man  of 
unusual  ability,  is  greatly  feared  by  everybody  and  is 
really  king  in  Germany.  Albert  of  Mayence  is  a  good 
Catholic  and  at  heart  loyal  to  the  pope,  but  sadly  lack- 
ing in  firmness  and  courage.  The  Elector  Frederick, 
at  first  spoken  of  as  an  excellent  prince,  pious  and  de- 
vout, but  with  councilors  more  Lutheran  than  Luther 
himself,  is  later  called  "the  infamous  Saxon,"  and 
inelegantly  compared  to  a  fat  hog,  with  the  eyes  of  a 
dog,  which  rarely  look  any  one  straight  in  the  face.  He 
is  also  dubbed  a  basilisk  and  a  fox  who  supports  Luther 
only  because  of  the  fame  and  prosperity  he  brings  the 
university  and  town  of  Wittenberg.  The  frankness  of 
the  despatches  makes  them  interesting  reading,  and  the 
bitter  prejudice  of  the  legate,  preventing  him  from 
seeing  any  good  in  Luther  and  his  friends,  need  not  be 
wondered  at.  Indeed  his  attitude  was  in  no  way  differ- 
ent from  Luther's  own.  The  latter  too  was  seldom  able 
to  see  any  good  in  his  opponents. 

Late  in  November,  in  response  to  the  Elector  Fred- 
erick's insistence  that  Luther  be  not  condemned  with- 
out a  hearing,  the  emperor  requested  him  to  bring  his 
professor  to  the  diet  and  let  him  answer  for  himself 
before  a  commission  of  learned  and  judicious  men. 
Luther  was  eager  to  appear  and  defend  his  cause. 
When  the  elector  inquired  through  Spalatin  if  he  were 
willing  to  go,  he  wrote  the  latter  on  the  twenty-first 
of  December : 

If  I  am  summoned  I  will  do  what  in  me  lies  to  be 
carried  there  sick,  if  I  cannot  go  well.  For  it  is  not  to  be 
doubted,  if  the  emperor  summons  me  I  am  summoned 
by  the  Lord.  If  they  use  force,  as  is  probable,  for  they 
do  not  wish  me  to  come  that  I  may  be  instructed,  my 


THE  DIET  OF  WORMS  195 

cause  shall  be  commended  to  the  Lord,  for  He  lives  and 
reigns  who  preserved  the  three  children  in  the  furnace 
of  the  Babylonian  king.  If  He  is  unwilling  to  preserve 
me  my  life  is  a  small  thing  compared  with  Christ's,  who 
was  wickedly  slain  to  the  disgrace  of  all  and  the  harm  of 
many.  .  .  .  Expect  anything  of  me  except  flight  or  re- 
cantation. I  will  not  flee,  much  less  recant.  So  may  the 
Lord  Jesus  strengthen  me. 


In  the  meantime,  fearing  the  effect  of  Luther's  pres- 
ence in  Worms,  and  incensed  at  the  proposal  to  give 
a  condemned  heretic  the  opportunity  to  defend  his 
views,  Aleander  induced  the  emperor  to  withdraw  his 
request  and  deny  Luther  a  hearing.  For  a  long  time 
it  was  uncertain  what  would  be  done.  But  when  the 
members  of  the  diet  persistently  refused  to  assent  to 
various  measures  the  emperor  had  at  heart  until  Luther 
was  permitted  to  appear  before  them,  the  case  was 
finally  compromised  in  spite  of  Aleander's  protests. 
The  excommunicated  professor  was  to  be  summoned 
and  required  to  recant  his  doctrinal  heresies.  If  he 
refused  he  was  to  be  condemned  without  further  ado. 
If  he  consented  his  criticisms  of  ecclesiastical  abuses 
were  to  be  considered  by  the  diet  and  such  action  taken 
as  might  seem  advisable. 

Accordingly  an  imperial  summons  was  issued  on 
March  6  requiring  him  to  appear  within  six  weeks  and 
guaranteeing  him  safe  conduct  both  in  going  and  re- 
turning. To  Aleander's  disgust  the  summons  was 
phrased  in  respectful  terms,  and  an  imperial  herald,  of 
known  Lutheran  sympathies,  was  despatched  to  Wit- 
tenberg to  escort  the  heretic  to  Worms  in  state.  The 
honorable  treatment  accorded  the  reformer  was  an  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  important  position  he  occupied 
in  the  eyes  of  Germany. 


196  MARTIN  LUTHER 

The  herald  found  him  ready  and  eager  to  go,  and 
in  spite  of  the  dangers  attending  the  journey,  for  im- 
perial safe-conducts  had  been  violated  before,  and  in 
spite  of  the  serious  issues  hinging  upon  it,  he  left 
Wittenberg  for  Worms  on  April  2,  1521,  in  good 
spirits  and  with  a  light  heart. 

He  was  accompanied  by  his  colleague  Nicholas  Ams- 
dorf,  an  Augustinian  brother,  John  Petzensteiner,  and 
one  of  his  students,  a  young  Pomeranian  nobleman, 
Peter  Swaben.  Instead  of  traveling  on  foot  as  he 
usually  did,  he  rode  in  state  with  his  companions  in  a 
covered  wagon.  The  city  magistrates  provided  the  con- 
veyance and  the  university  added  funds  for  the  jour- 
ney. Condemned  heretic  though  he  was,  town  after 
town  showed  him  distinguished  honor  as  he  passed 
through.  According  to  the  papal  legate  Aleander  his 
entire  journey  was  nothing  less  than  a  triumphal  pro- 
cession. At  Leipsic  the  city  council  sent  him  a  gift  of 
wine.  At  Erfurt,  where  his  old  friend  Crotus  was  rec- 
tor of  the  university,  he  was  met  outside  the  walls  by 
an  imposing  deputation,  and  was  greeted  with  an  ora- 
tion by  the  rector  and  a  poem  by  Eoban  Hess,  the 
most  celebrated  poet  of  the  day. 

Early  in  his  journey  he  was  unpleasantly  surprised 
to  learn  of  the  imperial  mandate  requiring  the  seques- 
tration of  his  books.  He  was  alarmed,  he  says,  and 
trembled  at  the  news,  for  it  showed  that  the  emperor 
was  against  him  and  he  could  hope  for  little  from  his 
own  appearance  at  the  diet.  But  his  resolution  to 
proceed  remained  unshaken. 

According  to  his  friend  Myconius,  when  warned  that 
he  would  be  burned  to  ashes  by  the  cardinals  and 
bishops  at  Worms,  and  reminded  of  the  fate  met  by 
Hus  at  Constance,  he  replied,  "Even  if  they  kindled  a 
fire  as  high  as  heaven  from  Wittenberg  to  Worms,  I 


WA  t  >  21'VJt  EFFIGIES  •'  H\£C «  t;jT;A\    |-  ir\>  A  t  | 
/ETHEKJs>A.v\»MPMT!5.<EXIJK!AMTt  II'JE  •    -TVAL 

M  n  XXI  jfc-1 


From  a  copperplate  eug raving  by  Lucus  Cra 


LUTHER  IN   1521 
The  second  earliest  known  likeness  of  Luther 


THE  DIET  OF  WORMS  197 

would  appear  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  in  obedience 
to  the  imperial  summons,  and  would  walk  into  behe- 
moth's mouth,  between  his  great  teeth,  and  confess 
Christ."  Though  Myconius  is  not  a  very  trustworthy 
reporter,  the  words  have  a  genuine  ring. 

Equally  characteristic  of  another  of  Luther's  fa- 
miliar moods  was  his  laughing  reply  to  a  similar 
prophecy,  recorded  by  another  friend  and  biographer, 
Ratzeberger :  "Nettles  would  n't  be  so  bad,  one  could 
stand  them,  but  to  be  burned  with  fire,  yes,  that  would 
be  too  hot." 

From  Frankfort,  where  he  stopped  over  night,  Lu- 
ther wrote  Spalatin,  who  was  already  at  Worms  with 
the  elector : 

We  are  coming,  my  Spalatin,  although  Satan  has  tried 
to  stop  me  with  more  than  one  sickness.  The  whole  way 
from  Eisenach  here  I  have  been  miserable  and  am  still 
in  a  way  not  before  experienced.  Charles's  mandate  I 
know  has  been  published  to  frighten  me.  But  Christ 
lives,  and  we  will  enter  Worms  in  spite  of  all  the  gates 
of  hell  and  powers  of  the  air.  I  send  a  copy  of  the  im- 
perial letter.  I  have  thought  it  well  to  write  no  more 
letters  until  I  arrive  and  see  what  is  to  be  done,  that 
Satan  may  not  be  puffed  up,  whom  I  am  minded  rather 
to  terrify  and  despise.  Arrange  a  lodging  for  me  there- 
fore. Farewell. 

A  year  later,  in  a  letter  to  the  elector,  he  remarked : 
"The  devil  saw  clearly  the  mood  I  was  in  when  I  went 
to  Worms.  Had  I  known  as  many  devils  would  set  upon 
me  as  there  were  tiles  on  the  roofs,  I  should  have 
sprung  into  the  midst  of  them  with  joy."  Long  after- 
ward, in  talking  about  his  journey,  he  repeated  the 
same  words,  and  added:  "For  I  was  undismayed  and 
feared  nothing,  so  foolish  can  God  make  a  man !  I  am 
not  sure  I  should  now  be  so  joyful." 


198  MARTIN  LUTHER 

At  Oppenheim,  some  thirty  miles  from  Worms,  he 
was  met  by  Martin  Bucer,  the  young  Dominican  whose 
enthusiastic  admiration  he  had  won  at  Heidelberg. 
Bucer  brought  a  message  from  Franz  von  Sickingen 
inviting  Luther  to  stop  over  at  his  castle,  the  Ebern- 
burg,  for  an  interview  with  the  emperor's  confessor 
Glapion,  who  had  been  sent  thither  for  the  purpose. 
What  Glapion's  exact  design  was  is  uncertain.  The  pa- 
pal legates  and  imperial  counselors  feared  the  effects  of 
Luther's  presence  at  the  diet  and  would  have  liked  to 
prevent  his  coming.  Glapion  perhaps  hoped  to  induce 
him  to  remain  away  altogether,  or,  as  Luther  believed, 
simply  to  delay  him  until  his  safe-conduct  had  expired. 
At  any  rate  the  traveler  declined  the  invitation  and  sent 
the  confessor  word  that  if  he  had  anything  to  say  he 
could  see  him  at  Worms. 

He  reached  his  journey's  end  about  ten  o'clock  on 
the  morning  of  Tuesday,  the  sixteenth  of  April.  His 
coming  was  announced  by  a  trumpeter,  and  though  it 
was  the  hour  of  the  midday  meal,  the  whole  town 
poured  out  to  see  him.  Aleander  sent  one  of  his 
attendants  to  witness  the  great  heretic's  arrival,  and 
afterward  wrote  the  papal  vice-chancellor : 

About  a  hundred  horsemen,  presumably  Sickingen's, 
accompanied  him  to  the  city  gate.  Sitting  in  a  wagon 
with  three  companions,  he  entered  the  city,  surrounded 
by  some  eight  riders,  and  took  up  his  lodging  in  the 
neighborhood  of  his  Saxon  prince.  When  he  alighted,  a 
priest  threw  his  arms  about  him,  touched  his  garments 
three  times,  and  went  away  exulting,  as  if  he  had  handled 
a  relic  of  the  greatest  of  saints.  I  suspect  it  will  soon 
be  said  he  works  miracles.  This  Luther,  as  he  stepped 
from  the  wagon,  looked  about  with  his  demoniac  eyes  and 
said,  "God  will  be  with  me."  Then  he  entered  a  cham- 
ber where  many  gentlemen  visited  him,  with  ten  or  twelve 


THE  DIET  OF  WORMS  199 

of  whom  he  dined,  and  after  dinner  everybody  ran  in 
to  see  him. 

In  spite  of  the  pressure  he  was  under,  Luther  took 
time  the  next  morning  to  visit  a  sick  nobleman  who 
had  expressed  the  desire  to  see  him.  After  offering 
him  spiritual  consolation,  he  heard  him  confess,  and 
administered  the  sacrament.  It  was  a  thoroughly  char- 
acteristic act,  for  he  was  never  too  busy  to  heed  such 
calls.  Always  to  the  end  of  his  days  he  remained  a 
devoted  and  self-sacrificing  pastor  and  spiritual  guide. 

At  four  in  the  afternoon  he  appeared  before  the 
diet,  sitting  at  the  time  in  the  bishop's  palace,  where 
the  Emperor  Charles  and  his  brother  Ferdinand  were 
staying.  The  hall  was  filled  with  a  large  and  dis- 
tinguished company  of  princes,  noblemen,  high  eccle- 
siastics, representatives  of  the  various  states  and  free 
cities  of  Germany,  and  ambassadors  of  foreign  powers, 
including  two  from  England.  It  was  an  impressive 
occasion,  fraught  with  consequence  not  only  for  Lu- 
ther himself,  but  for  the  empire  and  the  world  as  well. 
The  case  of  the  condemned  monk,  it  is  true,  was  only 
one  of  many  items  of  business  to  engage  the  atten- 
tion of  the  diet,  and  doubtless  most  of  the  members 
were  far  more  interested  in  other  matters  of  local  or 
national  concern.  Few  realized  the  seriousness  of  the 
situation,  and  fewer  still  appreciated  the  world-wide 
significance  of  his  appearance  before  the  German  em- 
peror and  estates.  But  all  were  curious  to  see  and 
hear  the  man  who  had  made  such  a  stir,  and  it  is  not 
surprising  that  the  hall  was  crowded,  as  well  as  the 
streets  outside. 

Aleander  was  scandalized  to  see  the  Wittenberg 
monk  enter  the  hall  with  a  smiling  face  and  let  his 
eyes  rove  over  the  assembled  company  instead  of 


200  MARTIN  LUTHER 

exhibiting  the  humility  and  fear  appropriate  to  one 
in  his  situation.  The  humanist  Peutinger,  a  delegate 
from  the  city  of  Augsburg,  where  he  had  entertained 
Luther  at  the  time  of  his  appearance  before  Cajetan, 
happened  to  be  standing  near  and  was  greeted  cheerily 
with  the  words,  "What,  you  here,  too,  Herr  Doctor?" 
Peutinger  afterward  saw  him  frequently  during  his 
stay  in  Worms,  and  reported  to  the  Augsburg  authori- 
ties that  he  found  him  always  in  excellent  spirits. 

As  soon  as  he  had  reached  his  place,  Luther  was 
peremptorily  required  to  say  whether  he  acknowledged 
as  his  own  a  pile  of  some  twenty  books  collected  by 
the  diligence  of  Aleander  and  arranged  upon  a  table 
before  him,  and  whether  he  would  retract  the  whole 
or  any  part  of  their  contents.  He  wondered,  as  he 
later  remarked,  where  so  many  of  his  writings  had 
been  picked  up;  but  when  their  titles  had  been  read, 
he  promptly  acknowledged  them  as  his  own,  adding 
that  he  had  written  many  others  besides.  In  reply  to 
the  second  question,  he  asked  for  time  to  consider  the 
matter,  since  faith  and  salvation  and  the  divine  word 
were  involved,  and  to  answer  without  premeditation 
might  work  injury  to  the  word  and  endanger  his  own 
soul.  The  papal  legates  and  imperial  counselors  were 
surprised  and  annoyed,  but  after  some  hesitation  he 
was  granted  a  delay  of  twenty- four  hours. 

Much  speculation  has  been  indulged  in  as  to  the  rea- 
son for  this  request.  In  one  of  the  many  extant  reports 
of  the  occasion  from  the  pen  of  the  Frankfort  repre- 
sentative, Fiirstenberg,  Luther  is  said  to  have  spoken 
in  a  low  voice,  as  if  he  were  frightened  and  confused. 
This  has  led  to  the  common  assumption  that  he  was 
overawed  by  the  august  assembly  and  too  much  upset 
to  take  a  firm  stand  such  as  might  ordinarily  have  been 
expected  of  him.  It  would  perhaps  not  be  surprising 


THE  DIET  OF  WORMS  201 

if  he  were.  For  the  first  time  face  to  face  with  the 
leading  princes  of  the  empire  and  the  greatest  sov- 
ereign of  the  world,  almost  any  man  might  be  par- 
doned if  he  were  dazzled  by  the  spectacle  and  discon- 
certed by  the  hostility  shown  in  the  abrupt  demand  for 
a  retraction.  But  the  evidence  is  insufficient  to  sup- 
port the  conclusion.  No  one  else,  so  far  as  we  are 
aware,  shared  Furstenberg's  opinion  that  Luther  was 
frightened,  though  many  who  have  left  reports  of  the 
occasion  had  a  much  better  opportunity  than  he  to  ob- 
serve the  monk's  attitude. 

We  must  not  be  misled  by  the  dramatic  contrasts  of 
the  scene — a  poor  monk  of  peasant  birth  standing 
alone  against  the  world.  If  he  had  been  standing  alone, 
the  emperor  and  diet  would  never  have  wasted  their 
time  with  him.  He  was  no  mere  individual,  on  trial 
for  his  life,  but  the  champion  of  a  great  and  growing 
party,  of  political,  as  well  as  religious,  importance. 
Nor  was  he  a  simple-minded,  inexperienced  monk, 
thrust  suddenly  into  the  lime-light  of  publicity,  but  a 
seasoned  warrior,  long  aware  of  the  national  signifi- 
cance of  the  battle  he  was  engaged  in.  At  Worms  he 
had  a  host  of  influential  supporters,  and  was  sur- 
rounded by  sage  counselors.  It  is  impossible  to  sup- 
pose he  entered  the  hall  ignorant  of  what  he  had  to 
expect  and  without  a  carefully  arranged  plan  of  pro- 
cedure. Apparently  the  plan  did  not  altogether  please 
Luther  himself,  for  he  frequently  complained  in  later 
days  that  under  the  influence  of  his  friends  he  was 
milder  at  Worms  than  he  would  have  liked  to  be. 
Doubtless  his  supporters  were  greatly  divided  as  to 
the  best  way  to  meet  the  situation,  and  many  of  them 
must  have  hoped  some  compromise  could  be  reached 
whereby  the  crushing  of  the  whole  movement  might  be 
prevented.  Very  likely  he  was  induced  to  ask  for 


202  MARTIN  LUTHER 

delay  until  there  was  time  for  further  discussion,  in 
the  light  of  the  impression  made  by  his  first  appear- 
ance. During  the  following  night  we  are  told  he  was 
in  constant  consultation  with  his  friends,  so  that  he 
got  no  sleep  at  all.  And  when  he  appeared  before  the 
diet  the  next  day,  firm  as  his  final  answer  was,  it  was 
phrased  very  carefully,  and  in  such  a  way  as  to  give 
as  little  offense  as  possible. 

Speaking  in  a  louder  voice  than  at  his  first  appear- 
ance, so  as  to  be  heard  by  everybody  in  the  hall,  he 
apologized  for  any  lack  of  respect  he  might  have 
shown  the  members  of  the  diet  the  previous  day, 
through  ignorance  of  the  forms  and  customs  of  the 
great  world,  and  then  gave  his  answer  to  the  crucial 
question  at  considerable  length,  first  in  German  and 
afterward  in  Latin. 

His  writings  he  divided  into  three  groups.  Some  of 
them,  he  said,  concerned  faith  and  morals,  and  were  so 
simple  and  evangelical  that  even  his  enemies  confessed 
them  harmless  and  worthy  to  be  read  by  Christian  peo- 
ple. Others  attacked  the  pope,  and  these  he  could  not 
retract  without  giving  support  and  encouragement  to 
his  abominable  tyrannies.  Still  others  were  directed 
against  individuals  who  opposed  his  gospel  and  de- 
fended the  papacy.  In  these  he  confessed  he  had  often 
been  more  violent  than  was  seemly,  for  he  did  not  claim 
to  be  a  saint;  but  if  he  withdrew  them,  impiety  under 
his  protection  would  prevail  more  widely  than  ever.  At 
the  same  time,  repeating  the  words  of  Christ,  "If  I 
have  spoken  evil,  bear  witness  of  the  evil,"  he  pro- 
fessed himself  ready  to  submit  and  recant  provided 
he  were  proved  wrong.  If  his  teachings  were  out  of 
harmony  with  the  Bible,  he  would  be  the  first  to  throw 
his  books  into  the  fire. 

When  reproved  for  not  speaking  to  the  point,  and 


THE  DIET  OF  WORMS  203 

asked  to  give  a  categorical  answer  without  horns, 
whether  he  would  recant  or  not,  he  replied : 

Since,  then,  your  Majesty  and  Lordships  demand  a 
simple  response,  I  will  give  one  with  neither  horns  nor 
teeth  to  this  effect.  Unless  convinced  by  the  testimony 
of  Scripture  or  by  clear  reason— for  I  believe  neither 
pope  nor  councils  alone,  since  it  is  certain  they  have 
often  erred  and  contradicted  themselves,— having  been 
conquered  by  the  Scriptures  referred  to  and  my  con- 
science taken  captive  by  the  word  of  God,  I  cannot  and 
will  not  revoke  anything,  for  it  is  neither  safe  nor  right 
to  act  against  one's  conscience.  God  help  me.  Amen. 

A  discussion  ensued  touching  the  authority  of  coun- 
cils, when  the  emperor,  as  it  was  already  growing  late, 
interrupted  the  colloquy  and  abruptly  closed  the 
session. 

Arrived  at  his  lodgings,  Luther  threw  up  his  hands, 
according  to  the  report  of  an  eye-witness,  and  cried 
with  joy,  "I  am  through,  I  am  through !"  The  strain 
must  have  been  tremendous  even  for  him,  and  his  relief 
that  it  was  all  over  and  he  had  held  his  ground  without 
flinching  was  proportionately  great.  A  few  days  later, 
in  a  letter  to  his  friend  Lucas  Cranach,  he  made  the 
following  characteristic  comment  upon  the  whole  af- 
fair :  "In  my  opinion  the  emperor  ought  to  have  gath- 
ered a  number  of  doctors  and  conquered  the  monk  by 
argument.  Instead  of  that,  I  was  simply  asked,  'Are 
the  books  yours?'  'Yes/  'Will  you  recant  them?' 
'No.'  'Then  begone/  Oh,  we  blind  Germans,  how 
childishly  we  act  and  how  contemptible  we  are  to  allow 
the  Romans  to  make  such  fools  of  us !" 

The  impression  made  by  Luther  upon  the  members 
of  the  diet  was  very  diverse.  The  Venetian  ambassa- 
dor wrote:  "Martin  has  hardly  fulfilled  the  expecta- 


204  MARTIN  LUTHER 

tions  which  all  had.  He  appears  neither  blameless  in 
life  nor  gifted  with  wisdom.  He  is  uneducated  and 
has  nothing  to  distinguish  him  except  his  rashness." 
According  to  Aleander's  report,  written  at  the  close  of 
the  first  day,  many  even  of  those  friendly  to  him,  after 
seeing  him,  thought  him  crazy  or  possessed,  while 
others  considered  him  a  pious  man,  full  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Later  the  legate  wrote  that  his  coming  had  had 
excellent  results.  The  emperor  saw  in  him  only  a 
dissolute  and  demented  man,  and  exclaimed  disdain- 
fully, "He  will  never  make  a  heretic  of  me."  In  fact, 
his  appearance  and  conduct  had  destroyed  altogether 
the  reputation  he  had  hitherto  enjoyed. 

On  the  contrary,  according  to  another  eye-witness, 
Luther  conducted  himself  so  bravely,  Christianly,  and 
honorably  that  the  Romanists  would  have  been  very 
thankful  if  he  had  not  come. 

The  Elector  Frederick  was  delighted  with  him,  and 
said  privately  to  Spalatin,  "The  father,  Dr.  Martin, 
spoke  well  before  the  emperor  and  all  the  princes  and 
estates  of  the  realm  in  Latin  and  German.  He  is  much 
too  bold  for  me." 

In  pursuance  of  the  agreement  reached  before  he 
was  summoned,  the  emperor  wished  to  have  sentence  at 
once  passed  upon  the  refractory  heretic;  but  some  of 
the  influential  members  of  the  diet  thought  it  possible, 
in  view  of  his  promise  to  retract  if  he  were  convinced 
of  his  errors,  that  he  might  yield  to  instruction  or  per- 
suasion. At  any  rate,  to  condemn  him  without  making 
an  effort  to  show  him  wrong,  it- was  felt,  would  lead  the 
populace  to  think  him  unfairly  treated.  There  were 
those,  too,  who  hoped  his  great  influence  might  be  used 
to  promote  the  reformation  of  ecclesiastical  abuses.  As 
at  previous  diets,  impatience  with  the  exactions  of  the 
curia  found  frequent  expression  at  Worms,  and  even 


THE  LUTHER  MEMORIAL  AT  WORMS 

About  Luther,  the  central  figure,  are  seated  four  precursors  of  the  Reformation:  Hus,  Savon- 
arola, Wyclif,  and  Peter  W aid o;  the  standing  figure  at  the  right  of  Luther  is  Melanchthon, 
and  a  figure  of  Reuchlin,  at  the  left,  is  hidden  by  the  statue  of  Frederick  the  Wise,  at  the  cor- 
ner, with  uplifted  sword;  the  outside  figure,  at  the  right,  is  Philip  the  Magnanimous  of  Hesse. 


THE  CATHEDRAL  AT  WORMS,   WHICH  WAS  STANDING  IN  LUTHER'S  TIME 


THE  DIET  OF  WORMS  205 

so  good  a  Catholic  as  Duke  George  of  Saxony  pre- 
sented a  long  list  of  grievances.  A  committee  ap- 
pointed to  consider  the  matter  drew  up  a  document 
containing  a  hundred  and  two  gravamina  against  the 
papacy  and  clergy,  and,  though  never  acted  upon  by  the 
diet,  it  showed  clearly  enough  the  temper  of  many  of 
the  members.  With  Luther's  doctrinal  innovations  few 
of  them  were  in  sympathy.  They  had  little  enough 
idea  of  what  they  were,  but  they  feared  their  unsettling 
effects  and  were  sure  they  ought  not  to  be  tolerated. 
Hus  and  the  Bohemian  uprising  were  constantly  before 
their  minds,  and  the  dread  of  similar  trouble  in  Ger- 
many acted  continually  as  a  check. 

With  Luther  himself  the  situation  was  reversed.  He 
was  willing  to  yield  in  the  matter  of  ecclesiastical 
abuses,  and  keep  silent  for  the  sake  of  the  peace  of  the 
church,  but  he  would  not  dissemble  his  doctrinal  be- 
liefs. He  had  attacked  the  pope,  he  said,  not  because 
of  his  bad  life,  but  of  his  false  teaching.  The  word  of 
God,  he  insisted,  must  not  be  bound,  and  preach  it  he 
would  as  he  understood  it,  whatever  the  consequences 
might  be.  With  such  convictions  it  was  quite  impos- 
sible for  him  to  enter  into  the  sort  of  compromise  many 
of  the  princes  wished.  Matters  in  their  opinion  of 
minor  concern  he  considered  of  fundamental  impor- 
tance, and  they  ultimately  discovered,  to  their  great 
disgust,  that  he  was  quite  intractable.  So  long  as  there 
was  hope  that  he  could  be  controlled  and  made  use  of, 
they  were  anxious  to  protect  him,  but  when  it  became 
evident  that  he  would  go  his  own  independent  way  and 
bring  about  changes  they  did  not  like,  they  dropped 
him  altogether. 

But,  in  the  meantime,  the  emperor  having  finally 
consented,  in  spite  of  Aleander's  protests,  to  grant  a 
brief  delay,  negotiations  with  Luther  were  carried  on 


206  MARTIN  LUTHER 

under  the  lead  of  the  Archbishop  of  Treves,  a  liberal 
and  fair-minded  prelate  and  a  personal  friend  of 
the  Elector  Frederick.  A  series  of  interviews  was 
held,  which  must  have  proved  more  trying  to  Lu- 
ther than  his  appearance  before  the  diet.  Every 
form  of  persuasion  was  brought  to  bear  upon  him. 
His  patriotism,  his  loyalty  to  the  emperor,  and  his  love 
for  the  church  were  appealed  to.  Theological  argu- 
ment was  tried  and  biblical  scholarship  invoked,  but 
all  to  no  purpose.  At  one  time  it  was  believed  he  was 
about  to  yield,  and  the  archbishop  was  much  encour- 
aged; but  the  belief  was  due  to  a  misunderstanding, 
and  it  was  soon  discovered  that  nothing  could  be  done. 

From  the  pen  of  John  Cochlaeus,  a  Frankfort  theo- 
logian, later  one  of  Luther's  principal  opponents  arid 
author  of  the  first  unfriendly  biography  of  the  re- 
former, we  have  a  long  and  interesting  account  of  a 
protracted  discussion  he  had  with  Luther  and  his 
friends.  Visiting  them  in  their  lodgings,  he  attempted 
single-handed  to  meet  the  whole  company  in  debate, 
and  was  obliged  to  submit  to  considerable  banter  and 
to  suffer  some  hard  knocks  from  those  present.  The 
interview  was  enlivened  by  a  tilt  between  Cochlaeus  and 
the  Wittenberg  Augustinian  Petzensteiner.  When 
Cochlaeus  addressed  him  contemptuously  as  "Little 
Brother,"  and  asked  him  disdainfully  if  he  thought 
there  were  no  wise  men  except  in  Wittenberg,  Luther, 
who  happened  to  enter  the  room  at  the  moment,  quieted 
the  threatened  disturbance  with  the  jocose  remark, 
"My  brother  thinks  he  is  wiser  than  all  of  us,  especially 
when  he  has  been  drinking  hard."  The  words  brought 
a  laugh  and  restored  the  company's  good  humor. 

At  another  point  Cochlaeus  asked  Luther  whether 
he  had  received  a  revelation,  and  after  some  hesita- 
tion the  reformer  replied  in  the  affirmative,  to  the  no 


THE  DIET  OF  WORMS  207 

small  scandal  of  the  Frankfort  theologian,  who  accused 
him  of  contradicting  himself  and  asserting  at  one  mo- 
ment what  he  denied  at  another.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  question  was  not  an  easy  one  to  answer.  Luther 
firmly  believed  his  gospel  came  from  God,  and  yet  he 
naturally  hesitated  to  claim  supernatural  illumination, 
and  as  a  rule  was  careful  not  to  do  so.  But  all  his  con- 
duct was  that  of  a  man  believing  in  divine  inspiration 
and  aware  of  his  own  divine  call.  The  two  disputants 
finally  separated  in  a  friendly  spirit,  but  Cochlseus 
assured  Luther  of  his  intention  to  write  against  him, 
and  the  latter  promised  to  answer  him  to  the  best  of 
his  ability. 

After  a  week  of  futile  effort  on  the  part  of  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Treves  and  others  called  in  to  assist  him,  the 
reformer  begged  to  be  allowed  to  depart,  and  on 
Friday,  the  twenty-sixth  of  April,  left  Worms  with 
an  imperial  safe-conduct  good  for  twenty  days.  He 
was  ordered  not  to  preach  on  the  way  home,  but  re- 
fused to  be  bound  by  the  prohibition. 

After  his  departure,  Aleander  was  intrusted  by  the 
emperor  with  the  task  of  preparing  an  edict  of  con- 
demnation. That  the  papal  legate  should  be  called 
upon  to  do  this  was  an  interesting  indication  of 
Charles's  attitude.  The  young  sovereign  was  a  devout 
Catholic,  and  though  in  political  matters  he  might  deal 
with  the  pope  as  with  any  other  civil  ruler,  when  legal 
effect  was  to  be  given  the  papal  condemnation,  he  rec- 
ognized the  pope's  representative  as  the  proper  person 
to  formulate  the  decision.  The  result  was  not  a  brief 
and  summary  state  document,  but  an  elaborate  account 
of  Luther's  errors  and  of  the  means  employed  to  bring 
him  to  reason.  Particular  stress  was  laid  upon  his 
alleged  anarchical  principles  and  his  incitement  of  the 
masses  to  uproar,  bloodshed,  and  war.  Evidently  the 


208  MARTIN  LUTHER 

need  was  felt,  as  in  the  bull  Exurge  Domine,  of  justi- 
fying the  action  before  the  people  of  Germany,  whose 
devotion  to  Luther  had  been  the  chief  obstacle  in  the 
way  of  his  condemnation. 

The  edict  put  Luther  unconditionally  under  the  ban 
of  the  empire,  and  thenceforth  to  the  end  of  his  life 
he  remained  an  outlaw.  He  was  to  be  seized  wherever 
found  and  sent  to  the  emperor,  or  held  in  safe-keeping 
until  his  fate  was  decided  upon.  All  his  books  were 
ordered  burned,  and  to  publish,  sell,  buy,  or  read  any 
of  his  writings  was  strictly  forbidden.  To  support  or 
follow  him  was  to  involve  oneself  in  his  guilt,  and  to 
befriend  or  hold  communication  with  him  openly  or 
secretly  was  to  commit  the  crime  of  lese-majesty.  The 
document  was  approved  by  the  emperor  on  the  eighth 
of  May  and  received  his  signature  on  the  twenty-sixth 
of  the  month.  It  was  not  submitted  to  the  diet,  but 
it  had  the  assent  of  the  leading  princes  still  on  the 
ground,  the  Elector  of  Saxony  having  left  Worms 
some  time  before,  and  in  view  of  the  earlier  decision 
to  condemn  Luther  if  he  did  not  recant,  its  proclama- 
tion was  entirely  in  order. 

Aleander  was  overjoyed  at  the  outcome  of  the  diffi- 
cult and  complicated  affair.  He  had  spent  many  anx- 
ious months  over  it,  and  when  it  was  finally  brought 
to  a  successful  completion,  his  exultation  knew  no 
bounds.  He  even  broke  into  poetry  in  the  despatch 
announcing  the  final  decision,  and  his  satisfaction 
with  the  emperor  was  expressed  in  glowing  terms.  "I 
cannot  refrain,"  he  exclaimed,  "from  adding  a  few 
words  about  this  most  glorious  emperor,  whom  I  have 
always  spoken  of  in  my  despatches  as  the  best  man  in 
the  world.  As  appears  more  clearly  day  by  day,  he  is 
superior  to  every  one  else  in  wisdom  as  well  as  in 
goodness.  Daily  can  be  seen  in  his  acts  a  judgment 


THE  DIET  OF  WORMS  209 

more  than  human."  Though  Charles  had  purposely 
postponed  the  adoption  of  the  edict  and  had  often  acted 
as  if  opposed  to  the  wishes  of  the  pope,  Aleander  de- 
clared it  was  simply  in  order  to  secure  the  assent  of 
the  princes  to  other  matters  of  the  utmost  importance. 
The  delay,  he  thought,  had  really  proved  of  great 
benefit,  and  the  effect  of  the  edict  was  far  better  than 
if  it  had  been  published  at  the  opening  of  the  diet. 


14 


CHAPTER  XV 

AT  THE  WARTBURG 

TUTHER'S  appearance  at  Worms,  to  which  he  had 
JL/  looked  forward  as  a  splendid  opportunity  to  pro- 
claim his  gospel  before  the  princes  and  lords  of  Ger- 
many, and  from  which,  in  his  faith  in  the  power  of 
the  spoken  word,  he  had  expected  great  things,  appar- 
ently resulted  in  a  complete  victory  for  his  enemies 
and  in  the  destruction  of  the  cause  he  had  at  heart. 
Condemned  by  church  and  state,  it  looked  as  if  the 
end  had  come  both  for  him  and  for  his  work.  His  only 
possible  course,  it  would  seem,  was  to  flee  the  country 
and  make  his  way  to  some  land  like  Bohemia,  where 
neither  emperor  nor  pope  held  sway,  and  whence  he 
might  easily  continue  his  agitation  and  scatter  his  writ- 
ings over  Germany.  This  Aleander  and  many  others 
actually  feared  he  would  do ;  but  the  Elector  Frederick, 
true  to  his  policy  of  supporting  his  professor  without 
too  openly  incurring  blame  for  his  heresies,  formed 
other  plans  for  him.  According  to  Spalatin,  while 
Frederick  was  fond  of  Luther,  and  would  have  been 
very  sorry  to  see  any  harm  befall  him,  he  was  at  this 
time  somewhat  faint-hearted  and  unwilling  to  incur 
the  anger  of  the  emperor.  He  therefore  conceived  the 
idea  of  concealing  his  condemned  professor  for  a  time, 
and  secured  his  assent  before  he  left  Worms,  though 
Luther  would  much  have  preferred  to  remain  in  the 
open. 

210 


AT  THE  WARTBURG  211 

Writing  from  Frankfort  on  the  morning  of  Sunday, 
the  twenty-eighth  of  April,  to  his  friend  Lucas  Cra- 
nach,  Luther  remarked,  "I  am  allowing  myself  to  be 
shut  up  and  hidden ;  I  don't  know  where.  Though  I 
should  rather  have  suffered  death  at  the  hands  of  the 
tyrants,  especially  the  raging  Duke  George  of  Saxony, 
I  must  not  despise  the  advice  of  good  people  until  the 
hour  comes." 

The  same  evening,  after  arriving  at  Friedberg,  he 
wrote,  at  Spalatin's  request,  a  long  letter  in  Latin  to 
the  emperor  and  in  Germany  to  the  electors,  princes, 
and  estates  of  the  realm,  explaining  and  defending  his 
course.  As  so  often  before,  he  asserted  again  his  readi- 
ness to  yield  if  he  were  convicted  out  of  the  Scriptures, 
and  expressed  in  the  warmest  terms  his  love  for  the 
Fatherland  and  his  conviction  that  he  was  acting  for 
its  good.  This  conviction,  indeed,  did  much  to  sustain 
him  during  all  the  troubles  of  these  years.  "I  was  born 
for  my  Germans,"  he  once  exclaimed,  "and  them  I 
serve." 

He  was  received  by  one  after  another  of  the  towns 
through  which  he  passed  as  warmly  as  on  his  way  to 
Worms.  At  Hers  f eld  he  was  welcomed  by  the  city 
council  and  handsomely  entertained  by  the  Benedictine 
abbot,  who  insisted  on  his  preaching  in  the  convent, 
although  Luther  warned  him  it  might  cost  him  his 
position.  He  also  preached  at  Eisenach,  where  the 
parish  priest,  fearing  possible  consequences  to  himself, 
went  through  the  formality  of  filing  a  protest  before 
a  notary,  privately  excusing  himself  to  Luther  for 
doing  so. 

After  being  hospitably  treated  in  the  little  city  where 
he  had  spent  the  happiest  years  of  his  boyhood,  he  left, 
on  the  third  of  May,  to  visit  his  relatives  in  the  near-by 
village  of  Mohra,  his  father's  birthplace,  where  many 


212  MARTIN  LUTHER 

of  his  kindred  still  lived.  The  next  afternoon  he 
started  on  again,  taking  a  road  through  the  forest 
in  the  direction  of  Waltershausen  and  Gotha.  Shortly 
before  dark,  not  far  from  the  castle  of  Altenstein,  the 
travelers  were  suddenly  set  upon  by  a  company  of 
armed  horsemen.  Most  of  Luther's  companions,  in- 
cluding the  imperial  herald,  had  already  been  got  rid 
of  on  one  or  another  pretext,  and  only  Amsdorf  and 
Brother  Petzensteiner  were  with  him.  The  latter  at 
once  took  to  his  heels  and  made  his  way  on  foot  to 
Waltershausen.  Amsdorf,  who  had  been  forewarned 
of  what  was  to  happen,  was  permitted  to  return  with 
the  driver  to  Eisenach.  Luther  himself  was  taken 
back  through  the  forest  by  devious  paths  to  the  Wart- 
burg,  one  of  the  strongholds  of  the  Elector  Frederick, 
where  he  arrived  late  at  night,  half  dead  from  fatigue. 

The  large  and  imposing  castle,  already  more  than 
four  hundred  years  old  and  crowded  with  historical 
memories  and  legendary  tales,  stood  upon  the  wooded 
heights  just  beyond  the  confines  of  Eisenach,  com- 
manding the  town  itself  and  the  beautiful  Thuringian 
country  for  many  miles  round.  There,  in  honorable 
captivity,  Luther  made  his  home  for  nearly  a  year, 
while  the  great  movement  which  owed  so  much  to  him 
went  on  without  him. 

His  disappearance  was  the  signal  for  a  tremendous 
outcry  in  all  parts  of  Germany.  In  the  absence  of 
accurate  information,  rumors  flew  thick  and  fast. 
Many  believed  he  was  held  in  confinement  by  his  ene- 
mies. Some  thought  he  had  been  carried  off  by  Sick- 
ingen,  others  that  he  had  been  murdered,  and  circum- 
stantial tales  were  told  of  the  finding  of  his  body  in  this 
or  that  spot.  When  the  news  reached  Albrecht  Diirer, 
who  was  traveling  at  the  time  in  the  Netherlands,  he 
made  a  long  entry  in  his  diary  expressing  in  impas- 


From  a  photograph  by  the  Berlin  Photographische  Gesellschaft,  of  the  painting  by 
Lucas  Cranach  in  the  City  Library  at  Leipsic 


LUTHER'S  APPEARANCE 
WHILE  SECLUDED  IN  THE  WARTBURG 


AT  THE  WARTBURG  213 

sioned  terms  his  devotion  to  Luther  and  his  sorrow 
at  his  death.  "O  God,  is  Luther  dead,  who  will  hence- 
forth proclaim  the  gospel  so  clearly  to  us?  O  God, 
what  might  he  not  still  have  written  for  us  in  ten  or 
twenty  years !" 

According  to  a  report  repeated  by  Luther  himself, 
a  Romanist  wrote  the  Archbishop  of  Mayence,  "We 
are  rid  of  Luther,  as  we  wished  to  be;  but  the  people 
are  so  stirred  up  that  I  suspect  we  shall  scarcely  escape 
with  our  lives  unless  with  lighted  candles  we  seek  him 
everywhere  and  bring  him  back." 

Aleander,  as  well  as  many  others,  guessed  the  truth, 
but  neither  he  nor  any  one  else  knew  where  the  con- 
demned monk  was  hidden.  Even  the  elector  remained 
in  ignorance  of  his  whereabouts,  that  he  might  be  able 
publicly  to  deny  all  knowledge  of  what  had  become 
of  him. 

The  identity  of  the  captive  was  carefully  concealed. 
He  allowed  his  hair  and  beard  to  grow,  put  on  the 
costume  of  a  knight,  wore  a  gold  chain,  carried  a 
sword,  and  engaged  occasionally  in  the  sports  and 
occupations  of  a  young  nobleman.  He  went  by  the 
name  of  Junker  Georg,  and  was  generally  supposed  to 
be  a  knight  living  in  temporary  retirement.  He  had 
some  difficulty  in  maintaining  the  character  he  had 
assumed,  and  in  his  rides  and  walks  the  attendant  who 
always  accompanied  him  frequently  had  much  ado  to 
keep  him  from  betraying  himself  by  his  interest  in 
books,  so  foreign  to  one  of  his  supposed  class,  and  by 
his  tendency  to  enter  into  theological  discussion  with 
those  he  happened  to  meet. 

His  letters  to  his  friends  dated  from  "the  region  of 
the  birds/'  from  "the  desert/'  or  from  "the  Island  of 
Patmos,"  show  how  lonely  he  was  and  how  eager  for 
news  of  the  progress  of  events  in  Wittenberg  and  else- 


214  MARTIN  LUTHER 

where.  To  be  set  aside  as  he  was,  and  unable  to  go  on 
with  the  great  work,  was  a  sore  trial.  He  wrote  to 
Melanchthon,  begging  to  know  what  he  thought  of  his 
retirement,  and  expressing  fear  lest  it  be  supposed  he 
had  fled  from  the  conflict  in  cowardice.  To  his  friend 
Agricola  he  wrote:  "I  am  an  extraordinary  captive, 
sitting  here  willing  and  unwilling  at  the  same  time. 
Willing,  because  the  Lord  wills  thus ;  unwilling,  because 
I  should  prefer  to  stand  publicly  for  the*  word,  but  not 
yet  am  I  worthy." 

At  first  he  was  very  impatient,  but  gradually,  amaz- 
ing as  it  seems  in  one  like  him,  he  grew  accustomed  to 
his  enforced  confinement,  and  even  felt  relief  at  being 
once  more  by  himself,  as  in  the  earlier  monastic  days, 
and  apart  from  the  strife  and  turmoil  of  recent  years. 
"What  is  going  on  in  the  world  I  care  nothing  for," 
he  wrote  Spalatin.  "Here  I  sit  in  quiet." 

The  largeness  and  generosity  of  his  nature  were 
strikingly  shown  in  his  complete  freedom  from  petty 
jealousy  and  from  regard  for  his  own  importance.  His 
letters,  frank  as  they  are,  reveal  no  trace  of  annoyance 
because  the  movement  he  had  started  was  going  on  as 
prosperously  under  the  lead  of  others.  On  the  con- 
trary, he  was  continually  rejoicing  to  find  himself  un- 
necessary to  it,  and  when  his  friends  lamented  his 
absence  and  longed  for  his  return,  he  kept  assuring 
them  with  unmistakable  sincerity  that  the  cause  was 
better  off  without  him.  "I  rejoice  so  greatly  in  your 
fullness,"  he  wrote  Amsdorf,  "that  I  bear  my  absence 
most  tranquilly.  For  I  see  it  is  not  you  who  need  me, 
but  I  who  need  you."  To  Spalatin  he  wrote : 

I  am  pleased  with  the  news  from  Wittenberg,  and  give 
thanks  to  Christ  who  has  raised  up  others  in  my  place  so 
that  I  see  they  now  have  no  need  of  me,  though  Philip 


AT  THE  WARTBURG  215 

gives  way  too  much  to  his  affections  and  bears  the  cross 
more  impatiently  than  becomes  a  disciple,  still  less  such 
a  master. 


And  to  Melanchthon  himself : 

You  are  already  full,  you  reign  without  me,  nor  do  I 
see  why  you  desire  me  so  greatly,  or  what  need  you  have 
of  my  labors.  You  seem  to  invent  difficulties,  for  your 
affairs  go  better  in  my  absence  than  when  I  am  present. 
Although  I  should  most  gladly  be  with  you,  since  you 
have  all  you  need  I  should  not  be  reluctant  to  go  to 
Erfurt  or  Cologne  or  wherever  else  the  Lord  might  think 
good  to  open  a  door  for  me  to  preach.  How  great  is  the 
harvest  everywhere,  and  there  are  no  laborers.  But  you 
are  all  laborers.  We  ought  not  to  think  of  ourselves  but 
of  our  brethren  scattered  everywhere,  lest  perchance  we 
live  for  ourselves,  that  is,  for  the  devil,  and  not  for 
Christ. 

The  following  passage  from  his  "Warning  against 
Uproar,"  written  while  he  was  still  at  the  Wartburg, 
may  be  quoted  in  this  connection : 

I  beg  that  my  name  may  be  passed  over  in  silence,  and 
that  men  will  call  themselves  not  Lutheran  but  Christian. 
What  is  Luther  ?  My  teaching  is  not  mine.  I  have  been 
crucified  for  nobody.  Saint  Paul  would  not  suffer  Chris- 
tians to  bear  the  name  of  Paul  or  Peter,  but  only  of  Christ. 
How  does  it  happen  that  I,  a  poor  stinking  carcass,  have 
the  children  of  Christ  called  after  my  unholy  name?  Not 
so,  dear  friends!  Let  us  root  out  party  names  and  call 
ourselves  Christians,  for  it  is  Christ's  gospel  we  have. 

Nevertheless,  as  was  not  unnatural,  he  began  now  to 
suffer  a  return  of  the  mental  depression  of  his  earlier 
days.  For  some  years  he  had  apparently  been  almost 


216  MARTIN  LUTHER 

free  from  it;  but  being  again  by  himself  and  without 
absorbing  activities,  he  fell  frequently  into  deep  de- 
spondency. Writing  to  Melanchthon  but  a  fortnight 
after  reaching  the  Wartburg,  he  exclaimed :  "I  con- 
gratulate Dr.  Lupine  on  his  happy  death.  Would  that 
we  too  might  live  no  longer!  The  wrath  of  God, 
which  in  my  leisure  I  am  daily  observing  more  and 
more,  is  such  that  I  doubt  whether  He  will  save  any- 
body except  infants  from  this  kingdom  of  Satan.  Our 
God  has  so  deserted  us!"  But  how  rapidly  his  mood 
changed,  as  it  always  did,  is  shown  by  the  beautiful 
words  with  which  the  letter  closed:  "Again  farewell. 
Among  the  birds,  singing  sweetly  in  the  branches,  and 
praising  God  day  and  night  with  all  their  might." 

Occasionally  in  his  Wartburg  letters  he  referred  to 
the  visitations  of  Satan  he  was  called  upon  to  endure. 
"You  can  believe  that  I  am  exposed  to  a  thousand 
devils  in  this  indolent  solitude,"  he  wrote  his  friend 
Nicholas  Gerbel  in  November.  Upon  the  basis  of  such 
casual  remarks  and  of  the  somewhat  highly  colored 
tales  recounted  in  later  years  to  his  credulous  table 
companions,  a  whole  crop  of  ghostly  legends  has 
grown  up  about  the  chambers  he  occupied  in  the  lonely 
castle.  Exaggerated  as  they  are,  the  mental  struggles 
they  suggest  were  not  altogether  a  fiction.  Doubts  and 
fears  about  the  wisdom  of  his  course  he  could  not 
wholly  escape.  What  if  he  were  all  wrong  and  were 
deceiving  and  leading  to  perdition  the  multitudes  who 
were  looking  to  him  for  leadership?  "Are  you  alone 
wise,  and  has  all  the  world  gone  wrong  until  you  came 
to  set  it  right?"  was  a  taunt  that  caused  him  not  a  few 
anxious  hours.  Though  his  letters  contain  many 
splendid  expressions  of  faith,  the  unwavering  confi- 
dence of  later  years  he  had  apparently  not  yet  attained. 

Relief  and  recreation  he  found  frequently  in  out- 


AT  THE  WARTBURG  217 

of-door  excursions,  in  the  course  of  which  he  now 
and  then  visited  the  surrounding  towns  and  mingled 
unrecognized  with  the  crowds  in  market-place  and 
inn.  On  one  occasion  he  even  took  part  in  a  two-days' 
hunt.  His  description  of  it  in  a  letter  to  Spalatin  is 
beautifully  characteristic: 

Last  week  I  followed  the  chase  for  two  days  that  I 
might  taste  that  bitter-sweet  pleasure  of  heroes.  We 
caught  two  hares  and  three  poor  little  partridges— a 
worthy  occupation  indeed  for  men  of  leisure !  Even  there 
among  the  nets  and  dogs  I  reflected  upon  theology,  and 
great  as  was  the  pleasure  of  the  scene,  I  was  made  sor- 
rowful and  wretched  by  the  thoughts  it  suggested.  For 
what  else  did  it  signify  than  the  devil,  who  pursues  these 
innocent  little  beasts  with  his  snares  and  impious  dogs  of 
teachers,  the  bishops  and  theologians  ?  Only  too  sensible 
I  was  of  this  sad  picture  of  simple  and  believing  souls. 
A  still  more  dreadful  symbol  followed.  When  by  my 
exertions  a  little  hare  had  been  preserved  alive,  and  con- 
cealing him  in  my  sleeve  I  had  withdrawn  to  one  side, 
the  dogs  found  the  poor  beast  and  bit  it  through  my  coat, 
breaking  its  leg  and  strangling  it.  Thus  the  pope  and 
Satan  rage  that  they  may  destroy  even  saved  souls  re- 
gardless of  my  efforts.  I  have  had  enough  of  such 
hunting.  It  is  sweeter,  in  my  opinion,  to  slay  with  darts 
and  arrows  bears,  wolves,  wild  boars,  foxes,  and  impious 
teachers  such  as  these.  But  I  comfort  myself  with  the 
thought  that  it  is  a  symbol  of  salvation  when  hares  and 
harmless  beasts  are  caught  by  a  man  rather  than  by 
bears,  wolves,  rapacious  hawks,  and  similar  bishops  and 
theologians.  For  in  the  latter  case  they  are  devoured,  as 
it  were,  for  hell,  in  the  former  for  heaven.  I  have  writ- 
ten this  pleasantry  to  remind  you  that  you  hunters  at 
court  will  also  be  hunted  in  paradise  whom  Christ,  the 
best  of  hunters,  shall  scarcely  with  the  greatest  effort 
seize  and  save.  When  you  are  having  sport  in  the  chase, 
it  is  you  who  are  sported  with. 


218  MARTIN  LUTHER 

Relief  from  mental  distress  Luther  found  still 
oftener  in  work.  Though  he  was  continually  com- 
plaining of  his  indolence  and  lack  of  occupation,  and 
though  he  suffered  much  from  ill  health,  due  prob- 
ably to  the  unaccustomed  richness  of  his  fare,  he 
really  did  an  enormous  amount  of  study  and  writing. 
"Here  I  sit  with  nothing  to  do,  like  a  free  man  among 
prisoners/'  he  wrote  Amsdorf ;  but  for  an  idle  man  he 
accomplished  extraordinary  things.  Though  his  place 
of  concealment  was  kept  a  secret  from  the  world  at 
large,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  publish  freely  on  all  sorts 
of  questions,  and  it  was  not  long  before  enemies  and 
friends  alike  knew  the  reformer  was  still  alive  and  in 
touch  with  all  that  was  going  on. 

His  writings  were  of  various  kinds, — devotional 
tracts,  popular  sermons,  Scripture  expositions,  and 
polemic  pamphlets.  In  a  critique  of  another  papal  bull, 
which  had  included  him  with  many  notable  heretics  of 
the  past  in  a  common  condemnation,  he  attacked  both 
the  office  and  person  of  the  pope  in  the  coarsest  and 
most  abusive  fashion.  It  was  evidently  his  deliberate 
intention  to  give  the  German  people  courage  to  break 
with  Rome  by  pouring  scorn  and  contempt  upon  the 
papacy.  And  yet,  with  all  his  bitterness,  he  showed 
his  conscientiousness  and  a  somewhat  remarkable  fair- 
ness of  mind  when  there  came  into  his  hands,  early  in 
1521,  a  book  by  a  young  Bohemian  scholar  attempting 
to  prove  that  Saint  Peter  was  never  in  Rome.  Greatly 
as  the  acceptance  of  this  thesis  would  have  strength- 
ened his  polemic,  Luther  rejected  it  as  unproven. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  incidents  of  his  stay  at 
the  Wartburg  was  his  tilt  with  Archbishop  Albert  of 
Mayence.  Made  bold  by  Luther's  disappearance  from 
the  scene,  the  archbishop  ventured  to  open  a  new  sale 
of  indulgences  at  Halle,  where  he  had  gathered  an 


AT  THE  WARTBURG  219 

extraordinary  collection  of  relics,  beside  which  the 
treasures  of  the  castle  church  at  Wittenberg  paled  into 
insignificance.  From  the  proceeds  of  this  new  traffic 
he  hoped  to  replenish  his  exhausted  exchequer  and  also 
to  build  a  university  at  Halle  to  rival  the  one  at  Wit- 
tenberg. When  the  matter  came  to  Luther's  know- 
ledge, he  sat  down  in  the  first  flush  of  indignation  to 
write  a  severe  tract  "Against  the  Idol  at  Halle,"  in- 
forming Spalatin  of  what  he  was  doing.  The  elector 
promptly  protested  and  ordered  Luther  to  leave  the 
Archbishop  of  Mayence  alone.  The  one  thing  Fred- 
erick did  not  want  was  to  have  his  professor  get  em- 
broiled again  with  so  prominent  a  prince  of  the  realm. 
He  was  secretly  defying  the  emperor  and  diet  in  pro- 
tecting Luther,  but  he  hoped  the  excitement  would 
soon  quiet  down  and  the  whole  affair  be  forgotten. 
If  the  condemned  monk  were  again  to  break  the  peace 
in  such  a  fashion,  Frederick's  policy  would  be  al- 
together shattered,  and  his  position,  he  felt,  would 
become  intolerable.  His  command,  communicated 
through  Spalatin,  drew  ffom  Luther  the  following 
fiery  protest : 

A  more  displeasing  letter  I  have  scarcely  ever  read  than 
your  last  one,  so  that  I  not  only  put  off  answering  it,  but 
even  determined  not  to  reply  at  all.  In  the  first  place,  I 
will  not  endure  what  you  say,  that  the  prince  will  not 
permit  Mayence  to  be  written  against  or  the  public  peace 
disturbed.  Rather  I  will  lose  you  and  the  prince  himself 
and  every  creature.  For  if  I  have  withstood  his  creator 
the  pope,  why  should  I  yield  to  his  creature?  Beautifully 
indeed  you  say  that  the  public  peace  must  not  be  dis- 
turbed while  you  suffer  the  eternal  peace  of  God  to  be 
broken  by  the  impious  and  sacrilegious  acts  of  that  son  of 
perdition.  Not  so,  Spalatin !  Not  so,  Prince !  For  the 
sake  of  Christ's  sheep,  this  most  terrible  wolf  must  be 


220  MARTIN  LUTHER 

resisted  with  all  one's  powers,  as  an  example  to  others. 
Therefore  I  send  the  little  book  against  him,  finished  be- 
fore your  letter  came.  I  have  not  been  moved  by  what 
you  write  to  make  any  alterations,  although  I  have  sub- 
mitted it  to  the  pen  of  Philip  that  he  may  change  it  as 
he  sees  fit.  Beware  you  do  not  return  the  book  to  Philip, 
or  dissuade  him  from  publishing  it.  It  is  settled  that  you 
will  not  be  listened  to. 

A  few  weeks  later  he  took  matters  into  his  own 
hands  and  wrote  Archbishop  Albert  one  of  his  charac- 
teristic letters,  threatening  to  pillory  him  before  all  the 
world  if  he  did  not  at  once  put  an  end  to  his  new  indul- 
gence campaign. 

Your  Electoral  Grace  perhaps  thinks  that,  now  I  am 
off  the  scene,  you  are  safe  from  me  and  the  monk  is 
smothered  by  his  Imperial  Majesty.  However  that  may 
be,  your  Electoral  Grace  shall  know  that  I  will  do 
what  Christian  love  demands,  regardless  of  the  gates  of 
hell,  to  say  nothing  of  the  unlearned,  popes,  cardinals, 
and  bishops.  ...  It  has  become  so  clear  that  indulgences 
are  mere  knavery  and  deception,  and  Christ  alone 
ought  to  be  preached  to  the  people,  that  your  Electoral 
Grace  cannot  excuse  yourself  on  the  ground  of  ignorance. 
Let  me  remind  your  Electoral  Grace  of  the  beginning. 
What  a  terrible  fire  was  kindled  by  a  little  despised 
spark,  when  all  the  world  felt  so  secure,  and  thought  a 
single  poor  beggar  was  far  too  small  for  the  pope,  and 
was  undertaking  an  impossible  thing.  But  God  pro- 
nounced his  judgment  and  gave  the  pope  and  all  his 
creatures  quite  enough  to  do,  and  contrary  to  everybody's 
expectation  brought  the  game  to  such  a  pass  that  the 
pope's  prosperity  will  hardly  be  restored,  but  affairs  will 
daily  grow  worse  with  him,  that  God's  work  may  be  seen 
therein.  .  .  .  Therefore  your  Electoral  Grace  is  hereby 
finally  informed,  if  the  idol  is  not  done  away  with, 
I  shall  be  unavoidably  compelled,  for  the  sake  of  divine 


AT  THE  WARTBURG  221 

doctrine  and  Christian  salvation,  to  attack  your  Electoral 
Grace  openly  as  well  as  the  pope,  to  denounce  the  under- 
taking merrily,  to  lay  at  the  door  of  the  Bishop  of 
Mayence  all  the  old  enormities  of  Tetzel,  and  to  show  the 
whole  world  the  difference  between  a  bishop  and  a  wolf. 
...  I  have  no  pleasure  in  your  Electoral  Grace's  shame 
and  humiliation,  but  if  a  stop  is  not  put  to  the  profaning 
and  desecrating  of  God's  truth,  I  and  all  Christians  are  in 
duty  bound  to  maintain  His  honor,  although  the  whole 
world,  to  say  nothing  of  a  poor  man,  a  cardinal,  be  there- 
by disgraced.  I  shall  not  keep  still,  and  even  if  I  do  not 
succeed,  I  hope  you  bishops  will  no  longer  sing  your  little 
song  with  joy.  You  have  not  yet  got  rid  of  all  those 
whom  Christ  has  awakened  against  your  idolatrous 
tyranny.  Within  a  fortnight  I  shall  expect  your  Electoral 
Grace's  favorable  reply,  for  at  the  expiration  of  that 
time  my  little  book  "Against  the  Idol  at  Halle"  will  be 
issued  if  a  public  answer  be  not  received. 

The  wholesome  respect  in  which  Luther's  pen  was 
held  is  shown  by  the  complete  submission  of  the  fright- 
ened ecclesiastic.  At  the  end  of  three  weeks  he  wrote 
the  irate  monk  an  apologetic  letter  full  of  expressions 
of  personal  humility,  assuring  him  that  the  traffic  had 
been  already  stopped  and  promising  to  do  nothing  un- 
becoming a  pious  clergyman  and  Christian  prince.  His 
surrender  led  the  reformer  to  suppress  the  book  against 
him,  and  it  was  ultimately  published  only  in  a  revised 
form  and  under  another  title  as  a  general  attack  upon 
pope  and  bishops. 

FAR  and  away  the  most  important  fruit  of  Luther's 
stay  at  the  Wartburg  was  his  translation  of  the  New 
Testament,  begun  at  Melanchthon's  solicitation  in  De- 
cember, and  completed  in  less  than  three  months. 
After  a  careful  revision  it  was  hurried  through  the 


222  MARTIN  LUTHER 

press,  and  in  September  appeared  in  its  first  edition  in 
a  large  folio  volume  embellished  with  many  woodcuts. 
It  was  soon  followed  by  a  translation  of  successive 
books  of  the  Old  Testament,  until,  in  1534,  the  whole 
Bible  was  issued  together.  Even  then  Luther  did  not 
stop,  but  went  on  revising  and  improving  until  his 
death,  and  no  fewer  than  ten  editions  of  the  complete 
work  were  published  during  his  lifetime. 

He  was  not  the  first  to  put  the  Scriptures  into  the 
German  language.  Vernacular  translations  were  very 
common  and  had  a  wide  circulation  among  the  people. 
During  the  previous  half -century,  eighteen  German 
editions  of  the  whole  Bible  had  been  published,  and 
some  of  Luther's  own  acquaintances  were  engaged  in 
the  task  of  translating  before  he  began.  Writing  in 
December  to  his  friend  Lang,  who  had  recently  issued 
a  German  version  of  the  Gospel  of  Matthew,  he  urged 
him  to  go  on  with  the  work,  expressing  the  wish  that 
every  town  might  have  its  own  translator,  and  thus  the 
Bible  be  better  understood  by  the  people. 

That  he  had  many  predecessors  diminishes  in  no  de- 
gree the  importance  of  Luther's  work.  Though  his 
was  not  the  first  German  Bible,  it  soon  won  its  way  to 
general  favor  and  crowded  all  others  out  of  use. 

The  contrast  with  the  earlier  versions  was  very 
great.  They  were  based  on  the  Latin  Vulgate,  the 
official  Bible  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  smacked 
largely  of  their  source.  Written  in  a  curious  Latinized 
German,  most  of  them  were  unattractive  and  some- 
times almost  unintelligible.  Luther  translated  his  New 
Testament  direct  from  the  Greek,  and  his  Old  Testa- 
ment from  the  Hebrew.  Besides  getting  nearer  to  the 
original,  he  was  thus  able  to  avoid  the  deleterious  influ- 
ence of  the  Latin,  and  produce  a  translation  genuinely 
German  in  style  and  spirit. 


AT  THE  WARTBURG  223 

His  qualifications  for  the  work  were  many.  Though 
not  one  of  the  great  philologists  of  the  day,  he  had 
an  excellent  knowledge  of  both  Hebrew  and  Greek, 
and  a  very  unusual  faculty,  quite  out  of  proportion 
to  his  grammatical  attainments,  for  getting  at  the 
meaning  of  an  author  and  divining  the  sense  of  obscure 
and  difficult  passages.  After  his  return  from  the 
Wartburg  he  also  had  the  constant  assistance  of  Me- 
lanchthon  and  other  eminent  linguists  of  Wittenberg. 

His  long  and  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  Bible 
likewise  stood  him  in  good  stead.  Ever  since  his 
Erfurt  days  he  had  been  a  diligent  student  of  it  and 
had  fairly  saturated  himself  with  its  spirit  and  con- 
tents. His  profound  religious  experience  gave  him  a 
sympathy  with  it  he  could  have  gained  in  no  other  way. 
He  found  his  own  innermost  feelings  expressed  in  it, 
and  his  translation  of  many  a  passage  was  as  truly  the 
free  and  spontaneous  expression  of  his  own  heart  as 
the  reproduction  of  the  words  of  another.  He  doubt- 
less had  this  in  mind  when  he  wrote:  "Translating  is 
not  everybody's  gift.  It  demands  a  genuinely  pious, 
true,  industrious,  reverent,  Christian,  learned,  expe- 
rienced, and  practised  heart.  Therefore  I  hold  that  no 
false  Christian  or  sectary  can  translate  correctly,  as 
appears,  for  instance,  in  the  Worms  edition  of  the 
prophets.  Great  labor  was  employed  in  its  preparation, 
and  my  German  was  closely  imitated;  but  the  trans- 
lators were  Jews,  with  little  loyalty  to  Christ,  and  so 
their  art  and  industry  were  vain." 

His  intimate  contact  in  the  confessional  with  the  re- 
ligious emotions,  aspirations,  and  weaknesses  of  his 
fellows  had  also  thrown  light  upon  his  own  experiences 
and  sharpened  his  insight  into  the  hearts  of  men.  He 
had  a  profound  knowledge  of  human  nature,  as  his 
letters,  sermons,  and  tracts  abundantly  show,  and  it 


224  MARTIN  LUTHER 

enabled  him  to  understand  as  few  have  understood  the 
most  widely  and  variously  human  of  all  the  world's 
books. 

Most  important  of  all  was  his  extraordinary  ac- 
quaintance with  the  German  language.  It  is  not  often 
a  writer  of  the  first  rank  gives  himself  to  the  trans- 
lation of  another's  work.  Such  a  writer  Luther  was, 
and  his  version  remains  one  of  the  great  classics  of  the 
world.  He  had  a  command  of  idiomatic,  racy,  col- 
loquial German  seldom  equaled  and  never  surpassed, 
and  he  undertook  to  make  the  Bible  really  a  German 
book. 

In  a  tract  on  the  subject  of  translating,  defending 
his  work  against  the  strictures  of  his  enemies,  he  re- 
marked, "I  have  tried  to  talk  German,  not  Latin  and 
Greek" ;  and  again,  "You  must  not  get  your  German 
from  the  Latin,  as  these  asses  do,  but  you  must  get 
it  from  the  mother  in  the  home,  the  child  in  the  street, 
the  common  man  in  the  market-place."  The  difficulties 
of  the  task  he  indicated  in  the  words,  "In  translating 
I  have  always  made  the  effort  to  write  pure  and  clear 
German;  and  it  has  often  happened  that  we  have 
sought  a  fortnight  or  even  three  and  four  weeks  for  a 
single  word,  and  then  sometimes  not  found  it."  Writ- 
ing to  a  friend  in  March,  1522,  he  said:  "I  also  have 
undertaken  to  translate  the  Bible.  It  is  good  for  me, 
for  otherwise  I  might  have  died  with  the  fond  per- 
suasion that  I  was  learned."  To  Wenceslaus  Link  he 
wrote :  "How  great  and  laborious  a  task  it  is  to  force 
Hebrew  writers  to  talk  German!  How  they  strive 
against  it  and  rebel  at  being  compelled  to  forsake  their 
native  manner  and  follow  the  rough  German  style !  It 
is  just  as  if  a  nightingale  were  made  to  give  up  its  own 
sweet  melody  and  imitate  the  song  of  the  cuckoo, 
though  disliking  it  extremely."  And  to  Spalatin :  "Job 


AT  THE  WARTBURG  225 

seems  to  endure  our  translating  as  little  as  the  consola- 
tions of  his  friends." 

Luther  did  not  try  to  transport  his  readers  back  into 
Bible  days,  but  to  bring  the  Bible  down  to  their  own 
day.  It  was  not  a  scholar's  book  he  aimed  to  produce, 
done  so  literally  that  it  might  be  retranslated  into  the 
original  languages,  but  a  people's  book,  so  idiomatic 
and  modern  that  its  readers  might  forget  it  was  written 
in  a  foreign  tongue,  in  a  distant  land,  and  in  an  age 
long  past.  He  therefore  allowed  himself  many  lib- 
erties with  the  text,  to  the  great  scandal  of  his  critics, 
often  substituting  the  name  of  a  more  for  a  less  famil- 
iar object,  and  adding  words  freely  where  needed  to 
bring  out  the  sense,  as  he  understood  it,  or  to  make  the 
scene  vivid  and  real.  The  result  of  his  efforts  was  a 
Bible  translation  which,  after  the  lapse  of  four  cen- 
turies, still  stands  unapproached  in  its  vital  and  com- 
pelling power. 

Luther  himself  was  not  unaware  of  the  merits  of  his 
work.  Speaking  of  it  on  one  occasion  he  remarked: 
"I  do  not  want  to  boast — the  work  speaks  for  itself— 
but  it  is  so  good  and  precious  that  it  is  better  than  all 
the  Greek  and  Latin  versions,  and  you  will  find  more  in 
it  than  in  all  the  commentaries,  for  we  have  cleared  the 
stumps  and  stones  out  of  the  way  that  others  may  read 
in  it  without  hindrance."  But  he  underestimated  its 
lasting  popularity:  "When  I  die  every  schoolmaster, 
every  teacher,  every  parish  clerk  will  want  to  make  a 
translation  of  his  own.  Our  version  will  no  longer  be 
used.  All  our  books  will  be  thrown  away,  Bible  and 
postil  as  well.  For  the  world  must  have  something 
new." 

The  German  employed  by  him  was  not  his  own 
creation,  but  it  owed  him  much.  The  dialects  of  the 
day  were  many  and  various,  so  that  people  living  only 

15 


226  MARTIN  LUTHER 

a  few  score  miles  apart,  as  he  once  remarked,  could 
scarcely  understand  each  other.  But  a  common  diplo- 
matic language  had  already  developed,  and  become  the 
medium  of  official  communication  between  all  the  prin- 
cipalities of  the  land.  This  he  made  the  basis  of  his 
written  German.  "I  use  no  special  dialect  of  my  own," 
he  once  said,  "but  the  common  German  language,  that 
I  may  be  understood  by  all  alike.  I  use  the  speech  of 
the  Saxon  chancery,  which  is  followed  by  all  the 
princes  and  kings  of  Germany." 

Formal,  stilted,  and  clumsy  enough  it  was  as  em- 
ployed in  the  state  documents  of  the  day,  but  he 
greatly  modified  and  enriched  it,  making  it  more 
flexible  and  colloquial,  and  enlarging  its  vocabulary 
from  the  language  of  the  people,  spoken  and  written. 
He  had  a  wide  knowledge  of  current  literature,  devo- 
tional and  otherwise,  and  an  enormous  fund  of  popu- 
lar saws  and  proverbs,  and  his  style,  as  a  rule,  was  not 
only  simple  and  clear,  but  wonderfully  vivid  and  pic- 
turesque. It  was  no  exaggeration  when  a  contempo- 
rary declared,  "Dr.  Martin  is  a  real  German  Cicero. 
He  has  not  only  taught  us  the  true  religion,  but  has 
reformed  the  German  tongue,  and  there  is  no  writer 
on  earth  who  equals  him  in  it."  His  writings  did 
much  to  promote  the  spread  of  the  German  he  used 
and  to  give  the  whole  country  a  common  language. 
He  was  not  the  only  agent  in  promoting  this  develop- 
ment, but  he  did  more  than  any  other  single  man,  and 
above  all  books  his  German  Bible  contributed  most. 

Even  more  than  the  oneness  of  language  promoted 
by  it  was  the  unity  of  sentiment  to  which  it  contributed. 
Divided  the  land  was  still,  and  torn  for  many  a  day 
with  conflicts  more  bitter  than  it  had  ever  known,  but 
the  Luther  Bible  went  on  generation  by  generation 
nourishing  similar  ideals  and  serving  as  few  other 


AT  THE  WARTBURG  227 

agencies  to  unify  the  spirit  of  the  German-speaking 
race. 

Thus  the  reformer's  enforced  retirement  bore  rich 
fruit.  Set  aside  from  his  active  work  as  leader  of  the 
Reformation,  he  employed  the  quiet  weeks  of  winter 
solitude  in  the  lonely  castle  in  a  stupendous  task,  which, 
had  he  done  nothing  else,  would  alone  have  won  for 
him  the  lasting  gratitude  of  his  native  land. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE   CONFLICT   WITH   RADICALISM 

WHILE  Luther  was  in  retirement  at  the  Wart- 
burg,  events  were  moving  rapidly  in  Witten- 
berg. Left  to  themselves,  some  of  his  associates  and 
followers  proceeded  to  put  his  principles  into  imme- 
diate practice  and  to  break  with  traditional  custom  at 
many  points.  Hitherto,  despite  the  radicalism  of  his 
utterances,  the  externals  of  the  old  system  had  re- 
mained untouched.  But  this  state  of  things  could  not 
continue  permanently.  His  doctrine  of  salvation  by 
faith  alone,  making  all  efforts  vain  to  win  the  divine 
favor  by  acts  of  special  merit,  his  principle  of  Chris- 
tian liberty,  releasing  believers  from  dependence  on 
hierarchy  and  sacraments,  and  his  denial  that  pope  or 
council  or  any  other  ecclesiastical  authorities  had  the 
right  to  lay  upon  Christians  obligations  not  required  in 
the  word  of  God — all  these  could  not  fail  to  bear  fruit 
in  action. 

The  first  break  came  in  connection  with  the  celibacy 
of  the  clergy,  from  time  immemorial  a  rock  of  offense 
to  would-be  reformers.  In  the  spring  of  1521,  certain 
priests  among  Luther's  following  ventured  to  marry, 
and  in  the  summer  his  colleague  Carlstadt  published 
a  book  attacking  not  only  clerical  celibacy,  but  also 
monastic  vows.  Luther  himself  believed  priests  had 
the  right  to  marry,  if  they  chose,  on  the  theory  that 
celibacy  was  unjustly  required  of  them  by  a  tyrannical 
church;  but  he  regarded  monasticism  in  a  different 

228 


THE  CONFLICT  WITH  RADICALISM     229 

light.  He  remembered  the  solemnity  of  his  own  vow, 
taken  freely  and  without  compulsion,  and  though  he 
had  for  some  time  looked  with  disfavor  upon  the 
monastic  life,  a  voluntary  promise,  he  felt,  ought  to  be 
kept,  be  the  consequences  what  they  might. 

But  when  led  by  the  situation  in  Wittenberg  to  ex- 
amine the  matter  more  carefully,  he  soon  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  monks  were  as  free  to  marry  as  priests. 
The  monastic  vow,  he  decided,  was  itself  wrong,  and 
therefore  not  binding.  It  meant  dependence  upon 
works  for  salvation,  neglect  of  the  service  of  one's 
fellows,  and  permanent  bondage  to  a  law,  thus  vio- 
lating Christian  faith,  love,  and  liberty.  His  con- 
demnation of  monasticism  was  undoubtedly  far  too 
sweeping,  and  his  estimate  of  it  unjust  to  many  a 
devout  and  noble  soul;  but  he  was  consistent  in  pro- 
nouncing the  institution,  with  its  irrevocable  vows, 
fundamentally  at  variance  with  his  gospel  of  Christian 
freedom,  and  its  common  emphasis  out  of  line  with 
his  interpretation  of  the  Christian  life. 

He  defended  his  position  in  two  series  of  theses,  and 
a  little  later,  when  a  number  of  monks  left  the  Witten- 
berg convent  and  renounced  monasticism,  he  wrote  an 
elaborate  work  justifying  their  course  and  fortifying 
their  consciences.  The  book  was  preceded  by  an  inter- 
esting letter  of  dedication,  addressed  to  his  father, 
explaining  and  apologizing  for  his  entrance  into  the 
monastery.  He  had  taken  the  vow  against  his  father's 
will,  and  hence,  as  he  now  confessed,  in  violation  of 
his  duty  to  God. 

"And  so,"  he  exclaimed,  "will  you  even  now  drag 
me  out  of  monasticism?  But  that  you  may  not  boast, 
the  Lord  has  anticipated  you  and  has  dragged  me  out 
Himself.  For  what  difference  does  it  make  whether  I 
wear  cowl  and  tonsure,  or  lay  them  off?  Do  tonsure 


23o  MARTIN  LUTHER 

and  hood  make  the  monk?  'All  is  yours,'  says  Paul; 
'but  ye  are  Christ's.'  And  shall  I  belong  to  the  hood, 
and  not  rather  the  hood  to  me?  My  conscience  has 
become  free,  and  that  is  the  most  complete  freedom. 
Therefore  I  am  a  monk,  and  yet  not  a  monk;  a  new 
creature,  not  the  pope's,  but  Christ' s." 

Meanwhile,  at  the  instance  of  Carlstadt  and  other 
radicals,  among  whom  Gabriel  Zwilling,  an  eloquent 
and  fiery  inmate  of  the  Augustinian  convent,  was  the 
most  extreme  and  influential  of  all,  there  speedily  fol- 
lowed many  innovations  in  the  religious  services  at 
Wittenberg.  While  in  themselves  of  no  great  impor- 
tance, they  were  attended  in  many  cases  with  uproar 
and  riot  and  outraged  the  feelings  of  the  more  sober 
and  conservative  spirits  in  the  town.  Ominous  they 
were,  too,  because  largely  identical  with  'changes  made 
in  Bohemia  under  Hussite  influence,  thus  seeming  to 
presage  the  same  revolution  and  bloodshed  as  had 
devastated  that  kingdom. 

Early  in  December,  while  the  movement  was  still  in 
its  incipiency,  the  exiled  Luther  made  a  hurried  and 
secret  visit  to  Wittenberg  to  see  what  was  going  on. 
He  found  the  situation  less  serious  than  he  had  feared, 
writing  Spalatin,  "Everything  I  see  and  hear  greatly 
pleases  me.  May  the  Lord  strengthen  those  who  wish 
us  well."  The  students,  he  saw,  were  chiefly  respon- 
sible for  the  riots,  and  he  regarded  all  the  troubles  as 
largely  the  result  of  a  temporary  excitement  which 
would  soon  spend  itself. 

But  he  thought  it  worth  while,  as  he  informed  Spala- 
tin, because  of  the  many  reports  of  the  wide-spread 
roughness  of  his  followers,  to  write  a  vigorous  tract 
upon  his  return  to  the  Wartburg,  warning  them  against 
uproar  and  violence.  All  changes  in  the  existing  system, 
he  insisted,  must  be  made  in  an  orderly  fashion  and  by 


LttBRICVS  FATRIAI 


From  an  old  pri 


POPE    HADRIAN    VI 


THE  CONFLICT  WITH  RADICALISM     231 

the  civil  authorities,  not  by  private  individuals.  Up- 
roar, he  maintained,  is  always  bad,  and  out  of  evil 
only  evil  comes.  The  devil  was  trying  to  discredit  the 
new  movement  by  inciting  its  adherents  to  such  con- 
duct. As  for  himself,  Luther  declared,  he  would  sup- 
port the  side  attacked,  however  bad  it  might  be,  rather 
than  those  who  attacked  it,  however  good  their  cause. 
Only  with  the  word  was  the  work  of  reformation  to 
be  accomplished.  As  the  evils  of  the  old  system  were 
exposed,  they  would  disappear  of  themselves.  "Pay 
no  more  money,"  he  exclaimed,  "for  bulls,  candles, 
bells,  pictures,  churches,  but  declare  that  the  Christian 
life  consists  in  faith  and  love,  and  keep  doing  it  for 
two  years,  and  you  will  see  what  happens  to  pope, 
bishop,  cardinal,  priest,  monk,  nun,  bells,  steeples, 
masses,  vigils,  cowl,  cap,  shaven  poll,  rules,  statutes, 
and  the  whole  swarm  and  rabble  of  the  pope's  govern- 
ment. They  will  vanish  like  smoke." 

Late  in  December  there  appeared  in  Wittenberg  cer- 
tain fanatical  spirits  who  claimed  supernatural  illumi- 
nation, and  upon  the  basis  of  what  they  thought  divine 
inspiration  preached  the  complete  overturning  of  the 
existing  system,  religious,  economic,  and  social.  They 
came  from  the  Saxon  town  of  Zwickau,  some  eighty 
miles  south  of  Wittenberg,  not  far  from  the  Bohemian 
border.  Probably  under  the  influence  of  similar  move- 
ments in  Bohemia,  Zwickau  early  became  the  center  of 
a  prophetic  demonstration  which  spread  widely  and 
gained  many  adherents,  especially  among  the  lower 
classes.  All  social  distinctions  were  decried,  manual 
labor  was  insisted  on  as  alone  legitimate,  education 
was  denounced,  and  divine  revelation,  vouchsafed 
chiefly  to  the  ignorant  and  untutored,  was  looked  to  as 
the  sole  guide  of  life.  In  Wittenberg  even  Melanch- 
thon  was  deeply  impressed  by  the  newcomers,  while 


232  MARTIN  LUTHER 

Carlstadt  and  others  were  completely  carried  away, 
and  proceeded  to  put  their  principles  into  immediate 
practice,  to  the  great  scandal  of  many  in  town  and 
university. 

The  town  authorities  had  approved,  more  or  less 
hesitantly,  a  number  of  the  innovations  urged  by  Carl- 
stadt, but  had  not  thereby  succeeded  in  satisfying  the 
most  extreme  radicals,  and  things  were  gradually  get- 
ting beyond  their  control.  Wittenberg  was  gaining 
a  very  bad  name,  and  the  university  was  losing  many 
of  its  best  and  most  sober-minded  students.  The  theo- 
logical faculty,  to  which  Frederick  turned  for  counsel, 
was  all  at  sea.  The  innovators  had  much  to  say  for 
themselves.  Carlstadt  was  a  prominent  professor,  and 
most  of  the  radical  leaders  were  men  of  devotion  and 
exemplary  piety.  They  appealed  to  the  authority  of 
the  Scriptures  or  to  the  immediate  illumination  of  the 
Spirit,  and  it  was  difficult  to  show  them  wrong.  It  was 
also  dangerous,  so  many  felt,  including  the  pious  elec- 
tor himself,  to  resist  what  might  be  the  will  of  God. 

When  Luther  learned  what  was  going  on,  with  his 
usual  good  sense  he  wrote  his  colleague  Amsdorf  early 
in  January : 

Do  not  be  too  easily  moved  by  the  Zwickau  prophets. 
The  thirteenth  chapter  of  Deuteronomy  and  the  fifth  of 
First  John  make  it  certain  that  you  sin  not  if  you  put 
them  off,  and  first  prove  their  spirits  whether  they  be  of 
God.  In  the  meantime,  the  Lord  will  show  what  is  to  be 
done.  It  seems  to  me  at  first  sight  strong  cause  for  sus- 
picion that  they  pretend  to  revelations  from  on  high. 

And  to  Melanchthon : 

So  far  as  the  prophets  are  concerned  I  do  not  approve 
your  timidity,  for  you  are  greater  than  I  in  spirit  as  well 
as  in  learning.  First  of  all,  when  they  bear  testimony  to 


THE  CONFLICT  WITH  RADICALISM     233 

themselves  they  are  not  immediately  to  be  listened  to,  but 
are  to  be  tested  according  to  the  advice  of  John.  And  if 
you  are  not  able  to  prove  them  you  have  the  counsel  of 
Gamaliel  to  wait  and  see.  For  I  have  as  yet  heard  of 
nothing  said  or  done  by  them  which  Satan  cannot  do  or 
imitate.  Inquire  for  me  whether  they  can  show  their 
credentials.  For  God  never  sends  any  one,  not  even  his 
own  Son,  without  giving  him  a  commission  through  men, 
or  approving  him  by  visible  signs.  The  prophets  of  old 
had  their  authority  from  prophetic  law  and  order  as  we 
have  ours  through  men.  I  will  never  acknowledge  them 
if  they  claim  to  have  been  called  by  a  mere  revelation. 

In  February,  learning  of  the  perplexity  and  anxiety 
of  the  elector  over  the  growing  difficulties,  he  wrote 
him  as  follows : 

For  many  years  your  Electoral  Grace  has  been  col- 
lecting sacred  relics  in  every  land.  Now  God  has  heard 
your  wish  and  has  sent  you  without  cost  or  labor  a  whole 
cross  with  nails,  spears,  and  scourges.  I  congratulate  you 
on  your  new  relics.  Do  not  be  frightened.  Stretch  out 
your  arms  trustfully.  Let  the  nails  pierce  deep,  and  be 
thankful  and  glad.  It  must  be  thus  with  those  who  would 
follow  God's  word.  Not  only  do  Annas  and  Caiaphas 
rage,  but  Judas  is  among  the  apostles,  and  Satan  among 
the  children  of  God.  May  your  Grace  only  be  prudent 
and  wise,  and  judge  not  according  to  the  appearance  of 
things.  Be  not  faint-hearted.  The  matter  has  not  yet 
reached  the  pass  the  devil  desires.  Though  I  am  a  fool, 
believe  me  a  little.  I  understand  such  attacks  of  Satan. 
Therefore,  I  do  not  fear  him,  to  his  great  sorrow.  It  is 
only  the  beginning.  Let  the  world  cry  out  and  condemn. 
Let  fall  who  may,  even  St.  Peter  and  the  apostles !  They 
will  come  back  on  the  third  day,  when  Christ  rises  again. 

Through  one  of  his  officials,  the  elector  immediately 
replied,  asking  what  Luther  thought  he  ought  to  do 


234 


MARTIN  LUTHER 


in  the  circumstances,  for  he  did  not  wish  to  attempt 
anything  against  the  will  of  God  and  His  holy  word; 
but  things  were  in  the  greatest  confusion  in  Witten- 
berg, and  nobody  knew  who  was  cook  and  who  waiter. 
In  the  same  connection  he  protested  strongly  against 
Luther's  returning  to  Wittenberg,  as  the  latter  pur- 
posed to  do.  Much  as  he  would  hate  to  deliver  him 
over  to  the  emperor,  if  he  appeared  openly  in  Witten- 
berg, while  still  under  the  ban  of  the  empire,  he  could 
not  possibly  refuse  to  do  so  without  bringing  serious 
evils  upon  his  land  and  people. 

Despite  his  protest,  the  reformer,  who  had  in  the 
meantime  been  urgently  requested  by  the  town  coun- 
cil to  return  home,  started  for  Wittenberg  the  day 
after  receiving  the  elector's  communication.  On  the 
way  he  replied  to  it  in  the  following  fashion : 


Your  Electoral  Grace  knows,  or,  if  you  do  not,  I  now 
inform  you,  that  I  received  the  gospel  not  from  men,  but 
from  Heaven  alone,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  so 
that  I  might  boast  and  subscribe  myself,  as  I  henceforth 
will,  a  servant  and  evangelist.  That  I  offered  to  be  heard 
and  judged  was  not  because  I  was  in  doubt,  but  from 
over-humility,  to  win  others.  But  now,  perceiving  that 
my  humility  will  result  in  bringing  contempt  upon  the 
gospel,  and  the  devil  will  take  possession  of  the  whole 
place  if  I  give  him  even  a  hand's  breadth,  I  am  compelled 
by  my  conscience  to  act  otherwise.  I  have  done  enough 
for  your  Electoral  Grace  in  yielding  to  you  this  year. 
For  the  devil  knows  very  well  that  I  have  not  done  it  out 
of  fear.  Looking  into  my  heart,  he  saw  clearly,  when  I 
went  to  Worms,  that  had  I  known  as  many  devils  would 
set  upon  me  as  there  are  tiles  on  the  roofs  I  would 
have  sprung  into  the  midst  of  them  with  joy.  ...  I 
write  thus  that  you  may  know  I  come  to  Wittenberg 
under  the  protection  of  a  far  higher  power  than  the  elec- 
tor, and  I  have  no  mind  to  seek  shelter  from  your  Grace. 


From  an  old  print 


THOMAS  MUNZER 


THE  CONFLICT  WITH  RADICALISM     235 

Indeed,  I  believe  I  can  protect  your  Grace  better  than 
you  can  protect  me.  If  I  thought  you  could  and  would 
protect  me,  I  would  not  come.  No  sword  can  help  in 
this  affair.  God  must  act  alone  without  man's  care  or  aid. 
Therefore  who  believes  most  will  be  of  most  protection 
here.  And  since  I  suspect  your  Electoral  Grace  is  still 
weak  in  faith,  I  can  by  no  means  regard  you  as  the 
man  who  can  guard  or  rescue  me.  Since  your  Grace 
desires  to  know  what  to  do  in  this  affair  and  fancies 
you  have  done  too  little,  I  answer  respectfully  that  you 
have  already  done  altogether  too  much,  and  should  do 
nothing.  For  God  will  not  and  cannot  endure  either  your 
care  and  effort  or  mine.  He  wishes  it  left  to  Him  and  to 
no  one  else.  May  your  Grace  act  accordingly.  If  your 
Grace  believes  this,  you  will  be  secure  and  will  have 
peace.  If  you  do  not,  I  do,  and  I  must  leave  you  to 
sorrow  in  your  unbelief,  as  it  becomes  all  unbelievers  to 
suffer.  Since  I  will  not  obey  your  Grace,  you  are  excused 
in  the  sight  of  God  if  I  am  imprisoned  or  killed.  Before 
men  your  Grace  should  conduct  yourself  as  follows :  as  an 
elector  you  should  be  obedient  to  the  higher  powers  and 
permit  his  Imperial  Majesty  to  rule  body  and  goods  in 
your  cities  and  lands  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  the 
empire,  and  you  should  offer  no  opposition  and  interpose 
no  hindrance  if  he  tries  to  arrest  or  slay  me.  For  no  one 
ought  to  withstand  the  authorities  save  he  who  has  ap- 
pointed them.  Else  is  it  uproar  and  against  God.  I  hope, 
however,  they  will  have  the  good  sense  to  recognize  that 
your  Grace  was  born  in  too  lofty  a  cradle  to  be  yourself 
my  executioner.  If  you  leave  the  door  open  and  see  that 
they  are  unmolested  if  they  come  themselves,  or  send 
their  messengers  to  fetch  me,  you  will  have  been  obedient 
enough.  They  cannot  demand  more  of  your  Electoral 
Grace  than  to  know  whether  Luther  be  with  you,  and  that 
they  can  learn  without  anxiety,  trouble,  or  personal  dan- 
ger to  your  Grace.  For  Christ  has  not  taught  me  to  harm 
others  by  being  a  Christian.  But  should  they  be  so  lack- 
ing in  intelligence  as  to  ask  your  Electoral  Grace  to  lay 
hands  on  me  yourself,  I  will  then  tell  your  Grace  what  to 


236  MARTIN  LUTHER 

do.  I  will  keep  your  Grace  safe  from  harm  and  danger 
to  body,  goods,  and  soul  on  my  account,  whether  your 
Grace  believes  it  or  not.  Herewith  I  commend  your  Elec- 
toral Grace  to  the  grace  of  God.  If  necessary,  we  will 
very  soon  talk  further.  I  have  written  this  letter  in  haste 
that  your  Electoral  Grace  may  not  be  distressed  by  the 
news  of  my  arrival,  for  I  must  comfort  everybody  and 
harm  nobody,  if  I  would  be  a  true  Christian.  It  is  an- 
other man  than  Duke  George  with  whom  I  have  to  do. 
He  knows  me  well,  and  I  know  him  not  ill.  If  your  Elec- 
toral Grace  believed,  you  would  see  the  glory  of  God; 
but  since  you  do  not  yet  believe,  you  have  as  yet  seen 
nothing.  To  God  be  love  and  honor  forever.  Amen ! 

The  elector  was  obliged  to  content  himself  with  a 
letter,  written  by  Luther  at  his  request,  explaining  the 
reasons  for  the  return  to  Wittenberg  and  relieving 
Frederick  from  all  responsibility.  This  he  wished  to 
show  his  fellow-princes  in  case  he  was  blamed  for  his 
disregard  of  the  Worms  decree  in  allowing  the  con- 
demned monk  to  go  on  with  his  work  in  Wittenberg. 
While  desiring  to  protect  Luther,  he  preferred  to  pose 
as  incompetent  rather  than  to  avow  his  sympathy 
openly.  But  however  he  might  veil  his  attitude,  the 
important  fact  is  that  he  continued  to  protect  him. 
Eloquent  testimony  it  was  to  his  confidence  in  his 
heretical  professor.  Annoyed  though  he  must  have 
been  at  Luther's  defiant  return,  he  permitted  him  to 
resume  his  work  and  take  up  his  old  position  in  church 
and  university  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  He  could 
easily  have  stopped  him  by  putting  him  under  arrest. 
An  outlaw,  as  the  reformer  was,  and  under  the  ban 
of  the  empire,  it  was  only  by  the  elector's  grace  he 
remained  free  at  all.  Had  his  prince's  favor  been 
withdrawn,  his  career  would  speedily  have  come  to  an 
end.  But  it  was  never  withdrawn,  and  despite  papal 


THE  CONFLICT  WITH  RADICALISM     237 

bull  and  imperial  ban  the  bold  monk  went  on  unmo- 
lested. 

Returning  from  the  Wartburg,  Luther  stopped  over- 
night in  the  Black  Bear  inn  at  Jena,  where  he  was  seen 
by  two  Swiss  students  on  their  way  to  Wittenberg  to 
study  theology.  The  following  account  of  the  scene, 
given  by  one  of  them,  John  Kessler,  in  a  book  on  the 
Reformation,  throws  an  attractive  light  on  Luther's 
kindliness  and  affability : 

In  the  inn  we  found  a  man  alone  at  table  with  a  book 
before  him.  He  greeted  us  cordially  and  invited  us  to 
come  and  sit  with  him,  for  as  our  shoes  were  very  muddy 
we  were  ashamed  to  enter  the  room  and  had  set  ourselves 
down  on  a  bench  by  the  door.  He  urged  us  to  drink  so 
that  we  could  not  refuse  him.  When  we  perceived  his 
friendliness  and  amiability,  we  took  seats  at  his  table,  as 
he  had  invited  us  to,  and  ordered  a  measure  of  wine  that 
we  might  ask  him  to  drink  in  return.  We  had  no  other 
idea  than  that  he  was  a  knight,  for  according  to  the  cus- 
tom of  the  country  he  wore  a  red  cap,  with  hose  and 
doublet,  and  had  a  sword  at  his  side  which  he  held  by 
the  hilt  with  his  right  hand  while  his  left  clasped  the 
book. 

Soon  he  asked  where  we  came  from,  but  after  answer- 
ing his  own  question— "You  are  Swiss"— he  continued, 
"What  part  of  Switzerland  do  you  live  in  ?" 

We  told  him  St.  Gall.  He  went  on,  "If  you  are  bound, 
as  I  understand,  for  Wittenberg,  you  will  find  some  good 
countrymen  there,  Dr.  Jerome  Schurf  and  his  brother 
Augustine." 

We  said  we  had  letters  to  them.  Then  we  asked  him, 
"Do  you  know,  sir,  whether  Martin  Luther  is  now  at 
Wittenberg,  or  where  he  is  ?" 

"I  have  trustworthy  information,"  he  replied,  "that  he 
is  not  there  at  present,  but  will  be  soon.  Philip  Melanch- 
thon,  however,  is  there.  He  teaches  Greek  and  there  are 


238  MARTIN  LUTHER 

others  who  teach  Hebrew."  He  then  advised  us  earnestly 
to  study  both  languages,  for  they  were  especially  neces- 
sary to  an  understanding  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

"Thank  God,"  we  said,  "for  we  are  determined,  if  our 
lives  are  spared,  to  see  and  hear  Luther.  For  we  under- 
took this  journey  on  his  account,  having  been  told  that 
he  wishes  to  destroy  the  priesthood  together  with  the 
mass  as  a  groundless  superstition.  As  our  parents  brought 
us  up  from  boyhood  to  be  priests,  we  want  to  know  what 
sort  of  instruction  he  will  give  us  and  by  what  right  he 
proposes  to  do  such  things."  .  .  . 

Again  he  asked  us,  "What  do  they  think  of  Luther  in 
Switzerland?" 

"There  are  many  opinions,  sir,"  we  replied,  "as  every- 
where else.  Some  cannot  praise  him  enough  and  thank 
God  truth  has  been  revealed  and  error  exposed  through 
him.  But  some  damn  him  as  an  intolerable  heretic,  par- 
ticularly the  clergy." 

"I  can  well  imagine,"  he  remarked,  "it  is  the  clergy." 

Conversing  thus  with  us,  he  was  so  friendly  that  my 
companion  picked  up  the  book  lying  before  him  and 
examined  it.  As  it  proved  to  be  a  Hebrew  Psalter  he 
laid  it  down  again,  and  we  began  to  wonder  who  the  man 
might  be.  ... 

After  a  little  while  the  landlord  called  me  to  the  door. 

I  was  alarmed,  thinking  I  had  done  something  amiss. 
But  he  said,  "I  perceive  you  would  really  like  to  see  and 
hear  Luther ;  it  is  he  who  is  sitting  by  you." 

I  took  it  as  a  joke  and  said,  "Oh,  come,  Mr.  Landlord, 
you  wish  to  play  the  fool  with  me  and  satisfy  my  curi- 
osity with  Luther's  phantom." 

He  replied,  "It  is  certainly  he,  but  do  not  act  as  if  you 
recognized  him." 

Though  I  did  not  believe  him,  I  let  him  have  his  way, 
and,  returning  to  the  room,  told  my  companion  what  he 
had  said.  He  too  could  not  credit  it  and  thought  the 
landlord  had  perhaps  said,  "Hutten."  As  the  knight's  cos- 
tume and  bearing  seemed  more  like  Hutten  than  the  monk 


THE  CONFLICT  WITH  RADICALISM     239 

Luther,  I  let  myself  be  persuaded,  for  the  two  names 
sound  somewhat^  alike.  I  therefore  talked  the  rest  of 
the  time  as  if  he  were  Sir  Ulrich  von  Hutten,  knight. 

Meantime  two  merchants  came  in  to  spend  the  night, 
and  after  taking  off  their  wraps  one  of  them  laid  an 
unbound  book  on  the  table.  When  Martin  asked  what 
book  it  was  he  answered,  "It  is  Dr.  Luther's  interpreta- 
tion of  some  of  the  Gospels  and  Epistles,  which  has  just 
been  printed.  Have  you  not  seen  it  ?" 

"I  shall  soon,"  Martin  replied. 

Then  the  landlord  called  us  to  supper,  and  when  we 
asked  him  to  let  us  have  something  by  ourselves  he  re- 
plied, "Sit  down  with  the  gentlemen;  I  will  treat  you 
well."  When  Martin  heard  it  he  said,  "Come  on,  I  will 
pay  for  the  supper."  While  we  were  eating  together  he 
uttered  many  pious  and  gracious  words,  so  that  the  two 
merchants  as  well  as  we  were  more  interested  in  what  he 
said  than  in  what  we  ate.  Among  other  things  he  com- 
plained, with  a  sigh,  of  the  princes  and  lords  who  were 
then  assembled  at  the  Diet  of  Nuremberg  on  account  of 
the  religious  difficulty  and  the  burdens  of  Germany,  but 
were  disposed  to  do  nothing  but  waste  valuable  time  with 
costly  tournaments,  sleigh-riding,  debauchery,  pomp,  and 
unchastity,  when  piety  and  earnest  prayer  to  God  were 
most  needed.  "But  such  are  our  Christian  princes !"  He 
also  expressed  the  hope  that  evangelical  truth  would  bear 
more  fruit  in  our  children  and  descendants,  who  were  not 
poisoned  by  the  papacy  but  nourished  by  the  pure  word 
of  God,  than  in  their  parents,  in  whom  error  was  so  firmly 
planted  it  could  not  be  easily  rooted  out.  .  .  . 

After  supper  the  merchants  went  out  to  the  stable  to 
look  after  their  horses,  while  Martin  remained  with  us 
in  the  room.  We  thanked  him  for  the  honor  he  had  done 
us  and  for  his  kindness  in  paying  for  the  meal,  letting 
him  see  we  thought  he  was  Ulrich  von  Hutten.  He  de- 
clared, however,  that  he  was  not,  and  wfien  the  landlord 
appeared  he  said  to  him,  "I  have  become  a  nobleman  to- 
night, for  these  Swiss  imagine  I  am  Ulrich  von  Hutten." 


240  MARTIN  LUTHER 

The  landlord  replied,  "You  are  not  he,  but  Martin 
Luther." 

He  laughed  merrily,  exclaiming,  "They  take  me  for 
Hutten  and  you  take  me  for  Luther;  I  shall  soon  be 
Marcolfus." 

Then  taking  up  a  large  mug  of  beer,  according  to  the 
custom  of  the  country,  he  said,  "Swiss,  let  us  have  one 
more  friendly  drink  for  health's  sake." 

When  I  was  about  to  take  the  mug  from  him  he 
changed  it  and  ordered  wine,  remarking,  "The  beer  is 
new  to  you;  drink  the  wine."  Then  he  stood  up,  threw 
his  cloak  over  his  shoulder  and  bade  us  good-night,  offer- 
ing his  hand  and  adding,  "When  you  reach  Wittenberg 
give  my  regards  to  Dr.  Jerome  Schurf."  We  replied  we 
should  gladly  do  so  if  he  would  tell  us  what  name  to  say. 
He  answered,  "Say  only  he  who  is  to  come  sends 
greetings."  .  .  . 

The  Saturday  following  we  called  on  Dr.  Jerome 
Schurf  to  present  our  letters  of  introduction.  When  we 
entered  the  room  we  found  Martin,  looking  just  as  he 
had  at  Jena,  and  with  him  Philip  Melanchthon,  Justus 
Jonas,  Nicholas  Amsdorf ,  and  Dr.  Augustine  Schurf,  who 
were  telling  him  what  had  happened  at  Wittenberg  during 
his  absence.  He  greeted  us  with  a  laugh;  and,  pointing 
at  one  of  them,  said,  "This  is  the  Philip  Melanchthon  of 
whom  I  told  you." 

Elsewhere  in  the  same  work  on  the  Reformation  the 
Swiss  describes  Luther's  personal  appearance  in  the 
following  words : 

When  I  saw  Martin  in  1522,  in  his  forty-first  year, 
he  was  moderately  fleshy,  so  upright  in  carriage  that  he 
bent  backward  rather  than  forward,  with  face  raised 
toward  heaven,  and  with  deep  brown-black  eyes,  flashing 
and  sparkling  like  a  star,  so  that  you  could  not  easily  bear 
their  gaze.  ...  By  nature  he  was  a  friendly  and  affable 
man,  but  not  given  to  fleshly  lust  or  unseemly  pleasures, 


THE  CONFLICT  WITH  RADICALISM     241 

while  his  earnestness  was  so  mingled  with  joy  and  kind- 
liness that  it  was  a  pleasure  to  live  with  him. 

Arrived  in  Wittenberg  on  March  6,  1522,  Luther  at 
once  took  command,  and  speedily  brought  order  out 
of  chaos.  Never  was  the  power  of  the  man  more 
strikingly  exhibited  than  at  this  critical  juncture  of 
his  career.  Hitherto  he  had  been  a  radical  iconoclast, 
striking  right  and  left  at  existing  principles  and  prac- 
tices. Now  he  gave  himself  to  the  much  more  difficult 
task  of  controlling  and  moderating  the  forces  he  him- 
self had  set  in  motion.  In  a  time  of  wide-spread 
discontent  it  is  comparatively  easy  to  inflame  the 
smoldering  passions  of  men  and  lead  the  populace  in  a 
more  or  less  unreasoning  assault  upon  existing  institu- 
tions; but  to  control  the  tremendous  forces  thus  let 
loose,  and  so  to  guide  them  that  they  do  not  merely 
spend  themselves  in  impotent  fury,  but  lend  their 
strength  to  the  building  of  a  new  and  stable  structure, 
is  another  ^natter  altogether.  And  yet  we  should  en- 
tirely misunderstand  Luther  if  we  imagined  that  at 
this  great  crisis  of  his  career  he  turned  his  back  upon 
his  past  and  became  another  man.  It  is  most  illu- 
minating to  see  how  calmly  and  confidently  he  met  the 
situation  now  confronting  him.  Though  the  radicals, 
as  he  declared,  were  doing  his  cause  more  harm  than 
all  his  papal  opponents,  he  was  not  dismayed  or  thrown 
off  his  balance.  Nor  did  he  repudiate  the  principles 
hitherto  governing  him,  and  seek  refuge  in  other  and 
safer  ways.  Moving  straight  ahead  in  the  path  he 
had  long  been  traveling,  he  simply  applied  to  the  new 
situation  the  same  gospel  that  had  made  him  an  icono- 
clast, showing  how,  by  its  very  nature,  it  conserved  as 
well  as  destroyed. 

Beginning    on    the    Sunday    after    his    return,    he 

16 


242  MARTIN  LUTHER 

preached  in  the  city  church  on  eight  successive  days, 
handling  one  question  after  another  frankly,  vigor- 
ously, and  with  the  greatest  common  sense.  Violence 
of  every  kind  he  strenuously  opposed.  By  the  word 
alone  can  superstition  be  overcome  and  the  old  system 
reformed.  In  one  of  the  sermons  he  remarked : 

Take  me  as  an  example.  I  only  preached  and  wrote 
God's  word  and  did  nothing  else.  But  this  accomplished 
so  much  that  while  I  slept  and  while  I  drank  Wittenberg 
beer  with  Philip  and  Amsdorf,  the  papacy  grew  weaker 
and  suffered  more  damage  than  any  prince  or  emperor 
ever  inflicted.  I  did  nothing ;  the  word  did  it  all.  If  I  had 
wished  to  make  trouble,  I  could  have  plunged  Germany 
into  a  sea  of  blood.  Yes,  I  could  have  started  such  a 
game  at  Worms  that  the  emperor  himself  would  have 
been  unsafe.  But  what  would  that  have  been  ?  A  fool's 
game. 

He  did  not  stop  with  the  denunciation  of  physical 
violence.  Christian  liberty,  he  reminded  his  followers, 
as  he  had  clearly  shown  nearly  two  years  before  in  his 
beautiful  tract  on  the  freedom  of  a  Christian  man,  was 
not  an  end  in  itself,  but  only  a  means  to  a  higher  end 
— the  service  of  one's  fellows  in  self-forgetful  love. 
Faith,  he  insisted,  is  nothing  unless  followed  by  love, 
and  not  our  own  rights,  but  our  brother's  good,  should 
be  always  foremost  in  our  thoughts.  He  acknowledged 
frankly  his  dislike  for  many  of  the  ceremonies  and 
customs  of  the  past.  Too  often  they  had  no  warrant 
in  Scripture,  and  served  only  to  bind  the  conscience 
and  obscure  the  gospel.  At  the  same  time  he  declared 
the  Christian  life  consists  neither  in  refraining  from 
nor  engaging  in  external  religious  practices,  but  in 
faith  and  love.  Far  better  to  retain  indifferent  things 
than  to  offend  weak  consciences  and  imperil  the  sue- 


THE  CONFLICT  WITH  RADICALISM     243 

cess  of  the  cause  by  forcibly  setting  them  aside.  He 
had  now,  as  always,  a  splendid  disregard  of  externals 
and  a  magnificent  insight  into  the  real  essentials.  Mere 
uniformity  he  cared  nothing  about.  Because  the  mo- 
nastic life,  or  private  confession,  or  fasting,  was  good 
for  one  person  was  no  reason  to  require  it  of  all.  Let 
those  who  found  such  things  helpful,  as  he  himself 
continued  to  find  the  confessional  helpful,  employ 
them  freely;  but  let  them  not  insist  upon  others  doing 
the  same.  He  believed  when  the  gospel  was  every- 
where accepted  and  understood,  all  things  inconsistent 
therewith  would  fall  of  themselves.  In  the  meantime 
he  would  have  liberty  for  the  old  as  well  as  for  the 
new.  But  in  the  meantime,  too,  he  would  do  all  he 
could  to  instruct  Christians  in  the  truly  important 
things,  and  thus  wean  them  as  rapidly  as  possible  from 
trust  in  the  formal  and  external. 

Before  Luther  finished  his  sermons,  the  lawyer 
Jerome  Schurf  wrote  the  elector : 

Dr.  Martin's  coming  and  preaching  have  given  both 
learned  and  unlearned  among  us  great  joy  and  gladness. 
For  we  poor  men  who  had  been  vexed  and  led  astray 
have  again  been  shown  by  him,  with  God's  help,  the  way 
of  truth.  Daily  he  incontrovertibly  exposes  the  errors 
into  which  we  were  miserably  led  by  the  preachers  from 
abroad.  It  is  evident  that  the  Spirit  of  God  is  in  him 
and  works  through  him,  and  I  am  convinced  he  has  re- 
turned to  Wittenberg  at  this  time  by  the  special  provi- 
dence of  the  Almighty. 

Under  Luther 's  direction  many  of  the  changes  in  the 
worship  of  the  city  church  made  during  his  absence 
were  abandoned,  and  the  old  forms  for  the  most  part 
restored.  Calm  was  reestablished,  and  the  town  again 
speedily  resumed  its  normal  aspect.  Early  in  May  he 


244  MARTIN  LUTHER 

could  write  Spalatin,  with  great  relief,  "Here  there  is 
nothing  but  love  and  friendship." 

More  important  than  the  return  to  the  old  order 
was  the  public  stand  Luther  now  took  against  social 
and  economic  revolution,  and  his  emphatic  denial  that 
his  gospel  meant  the  violent  overthrow  of  the  existing 
religious  system.  The  consequence  was  a  great  re- 
vulsion of  feeling  toward  him  on  the  part  of  many  of 
the  princes  of  Germany.  They  saw  that  he  was  less 
radical  than  they  had  supposed;  that  he  stood  for 
order,  not  anarchy;  and  that  he  was  able  to  control 
the  seething  masses  as  nobody  else  could.  When  at  the 
Diet  of  Nuremberg,  in  the  autumn  of  1522,  the  at- 
tempt was  made  by  the  representatives  of  the  devout 
and  pious  Pope  Adrian  VI,  successor  of  Leo  X,  to  in- 
duce the  German  rulers  to  take  steps  for  the  more 
vigorous  enforcement  of  the  Edict  of  Worms,  the 
majority  refused  to  give  their  consent.  Though  the 
edict  had  been  adopted  only  a  year  and  a  half  before, 
the  situation  was  so  changed  that  they  now  declined  to 
reaffirm  it,  and  left  it  to  the  conscience  of  each  prince 
to  execute  it  as  far  as  he  pleased,  while  they  appealed 
to  a  general  council  for  the  final  settlement  of  the 
matter.  Thus  the  whole  question,  already  decided  both 
by  pope  and  diet,  was  again  thrown  open,  and  a  quasi 
and  temporary  license  given  to  the  new  movement. 

In  the  meantime  its  organization  was  proceeding 
steadily.  Town  after  town  took  the  management  of 
religious  affairs  into  its  own  hands  and  adopted  new 
forms  better  fitted  to  the  principles  of  the  Reformation. 
Luther  was  continually  appealed  to  for  counsel,  and 
his  help  was  sought  in  securing  preachers  of  the  right 
stamp  to  take  the  place  of  those  out  of  sympathy  with 
the  new  order  of  things.  He  was  becoming  more  and 
more  the  bishop,  or  general  overseer,  of  the  churches 


THE  CONFLICT  WITH  RADICALISM     245 

accepting  the  Reformation,  and  all  sorts  of  adminis- 
trative problems  were  constantly  upon  his  mind.  His 
correspondence  during  1522  and  the  following  years 
had  to  do  increasingly  with  such  matters.  He  also 
traveled  widely,  visiting  places  in  need  of  advice  and 
bringing  his  wisdom  to  bear  upon  the  many  difficult 
questions  that  were  emerging  month  by  month. 

The  constant  temptation,  as  in  Wittenberg,  was  to 
go  too  fast,  and  he  was  obliged  often  to  remonstrate 
with  the  authorities  and  urge  upon  them  the  considera- 
tions governing  his  own  conduct.  But  as  time  passed 
and  the  influence  of  his  principles  spread,  he  approved 
both  for  Wittenberg  and  elsewhere  more  radical 
changes  than  at  first.  In  1523  we  hear  him  fre- 
quently declaring  that  the  prejudices  of  the  weak  had 
been  long  enough  regarded,  and  the  time  had  come  to 
do  away  with  many  of  the  more  obnoxious  forms  and 
customs  of  the  past.  Even  now  he  was  surprisingly 
conservative.  Many  of  his  followers  wished  to  cast 
aside  everything  not  sustained  by  direct  warrant  of 
Scripture ;  but  he  took  the  position,  and  maintained  it 
to  the  end  of  his  life,  that  the  old  was  to  be  left  un- 
molested whenever  it  did  not  contradict  or  obscure  the 
gospel  of  Christ.  He  also  continued  to  oppose  hasty 
and  violent  innovations  of  every  kind.  Usually  his 
advice  was  followed,  but  occasionally,  particularly  in 
places  at  a  distance  from  Wittenberg,  he  was  unable  to 
control  the  more  radical  spirits  and  had  to  witness 
changes  he  greatly  disliked.  He  did  not  hesitate  in 
such  cases  to  express  himself  with  the  same  sharpness 
as  against  his  papal  opponents.  Carlstadt,  who 
left  Wittenberg  in  disgust  in  1523,  and  Thomas  Miin- 
zer,  a  clergyman  of  Zwickau  and  the  principal  leader 
of  the  fanatical  prophets  of  that  neighborhood,  made 
him  most  trouble.  They  denounced  him  as  a  tyrant, 


246  MARTIN  LUTHER 

declared  him  recreant  to  his  own  principles  and  untrue 
to  the  word  of  God,  and  strove  in  every  way  to  under- 
mine his  influence  and  force  a  radical  reform. 

In  Orlamiinde,  a  little  town  not  far  from  Zwickau, 
he  had  a  humiliating,  if  somewhat  amusing,  experi- 
ence in  the  autumn  of  1524.  Carlstadt  was  for  a  time 
pastor  there,  and  gained  a  large  following.  Under  his 
influence,  images  were  destroyed,  convents  forcibly 
closed,  and  one  after  another  of  the  old  customs  arbi- 
trarily set  aside.  In  the  course  of  a  tour  of  visitation, 
Luther  appeared  upon  the  scene,  and  in  an  extended 
interview  with  the  authorities  of  the  town  tried  to 
convince  them  of  the  error  of  their  ways.  They  de- 
fended themselves  warmly,  insisting  they  were  truer 
to  the  word  of  God  than  he.  If  to  be  true  to  it  means 
to  follow  it  slavishly  in  all  its  parts,  they  were  cer- 
tainly right.  But  in  contrast  with  their  narrow  liter- 
alism, Luther's  moderation  and  common  sense  appear 
to  great  advantage.  He  would  not  allow  himself  to  be 
carried  to  fanatical  extremes  even  by  his  own  principle 
of  loyalty  to  the  Bible.  In  the  course  of  the  discus- 
sion, a  shoemaker  justified  the  destruction  of  images 
by  a  Scriptural  argument  so  picturesque  and  far- 
fetched that  Luther  was  nearly  overcome  with  laugh- 
ter and  was  quite  unable  to  answer.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  he  produced  no  impression  upon  his  interlocutors, 
and  only  confirmed  them  in  the  opinion  that  he  was 
inconsistent  and  half-hearted  in  the  work  of  reforma- 
tion. He  wrote  afterward :  "I  was  glad  enough  not  to 
be  driven  out  of  Orlamiinde  with  stones  and  mud,  for 
some  of  them  blessed  me  with  the  words,  'Get  out,  in 
the  name  of  a  thousand  devils,  and  break  your  neck 
before  you  leave !' ' 

Meanwhile  there  occurred  an  event  which  served 
only  to  confirm  Luther  in  his  attitude  toward  violence 


THE  CONFLICT  WITH  RADICALISM     247 

and  anarchy.  Franz  von  Sickingen,  whose  offers  of 
support  had  meant  a  great  deal  to  him  not  long  before, 
and  to  whom  he  had  dedicated  a  book  on  the  confes- 
sional, written  in  the  early  days  of  his  stay  at  the 
Wartburg,  began  war  in  the  summer  of  1522  upon  an 
old  enemy,  the  Elector  and  Archbishop  of  Treves. 
The  campaign  was  intended  to  be  only  the  beginning 
of  a  general  struggle  to  curtail  the  power  of  the  great 
princes  of  the  realm  and  restore  to  the  nobles  their 
rapidly  waning  influence.  Its  controlling  motive  was 
certainly  political  and  economic,  but  Sickingen  claimed 
to  be  a  champion  of  the  Reformation,  interested  to  pro- 
mote the  true  gospel,  and  announced  his  purpose  to 
revolutionize  ecclesiastical  and  religious  conditions. 
He  undoubtedly  hoped  thus  to  enlist  the  support  of 
Luther's  sympathizers,  but  the  hope  proved  vain.  The 
real  significance  of  the  affair  was  generally  understood, 
and  the  Archbishop  of  Treves  was  supported  by  the 
Count  Palatine  and  the  young  Landgrave  Philip  of 
Hesse,  both  of  them  already  favorably  inclined  toward 
Luther  and  his  cause. 

Sickingen's  campaign  was  a  complete  failure.  He 
was  obliged  to  return  to  his  stronghold,  the  Landstuhl, 
where  he  was  besieged  in  the  spring  of  1523,  and 
where  he  died  of  his  wounds  on  the  seventh  of  May, 
just  after  the  castle  was  taken  by  his  enemies.  His 
defeat  foreshadowed  the  speedy  dissolution  of  the 
knights'  revolutionary  party,  and  their  influence  in 
German  affairs  was  permanently  broken. 

Ulrich  von  Hutten,  who  had  done  much  to  encour- 
age the  formation  of  the  party,  survived  his  old  friend 
and  protector  only  a  few  months.  He  departed  before 
the  beginning  of  Sickingen's  last  campaign,  and  in  Au- 
gust, 1523,  after  wandering  from  place  to  place,  died 
in  poverty  at  Zurich,  befriended  by  the  Swiss  reformer 


248  MARTIN  LUTHER 

Zwingli,  but  deserted  by  all  his  old  friends.  Melanch- 
thon  spoke  bitterly  and  contemptuously  of  him  after 
his  death.  Happily,  so  far  as  we  are  aware,  Luther 
did  not  follow  his  example,  but  we  search  his  writings 
in  vain  for  an  expression  of  regret  at  the  death  of  his 
erstwhile  champion  and  confidant.  The  cause  meant 
so  much  to  him  that  he  found  it  difficult  to  think  kindly 
of  any  one  who  hindered  or  brought  disrepute  upon  it, 
as  Hutten's  incendiary  writings  and  final  loss  of  pres- 
tige had  done. 

It  was  well  Sickingen's  attempt  miscarried.  His 
success  would  have  meant  at  least  a  partial  return  to  a 
state  of  society  already  largely  outgrown  and  quite 
unsuited  to  the  demands  of  the  new  age;  and  had  the 
Reformation  become  identified  with  the  claob  interests 
of  the  nobles,  it  would  have  perished  with  them  in  the 
fall  that  was  bound  to  come  ultimately,  if  not  then. 

Naturally,  the  affair  was  used  by  Luther's  enemies 
to  discredit  his  whole  movement.  Now  the  rival  em- 
peror was  fallen,  the  anti-pope,  it  was  confidently  pre- 
dicted, would  soon  follow.  There  was  some  apparent 
justification  for  this  attitude.  Luther's  famous  Ad- 
dress to  the  German  Nobility,  written  in  1520,  and  his 
occasional  warlike  declarations  of  the  same  year,  which 
still  echoed  in  the  dedication  of  his  book  on  the  con- 
fessional, had  led  many  to  identify  his  cause  with  that 
of  the  nobles,  and  Sickingen's  avowed  plan  to  promote 
the  Reformation  was  taken  to  mean  he  had  Luther's 
support,  and  was  fighting  the  reformer's  battles  as 
well  as  his  own. 

Melanchthon  complained  of  this  as  early  as  January, 
1523,  denouncing  Sickingen's  campaign  as  a  dishonor- 
able act  of  robbery  and  declaring  that  Luther  was 
greatly  distressed  by  it.  Luther  himself  had  very  little 
to  say  on  the  subject.  In  a  letter  of  December,  1522, 
to  his  friend  Link,  he  wrote :  "Franz  von  Sickingen 


THE  CONFLICT  WITH  RADICALISM     249 

has  declared  war  against  the  Palatinate.  It  will  be  a 
very  bad  affair."  Beyond  this  casual  remark  we  have 
no  reference  to  the  matter  in  his  writings ;  but  when  a 
rumor  of  Sickingen's  death  reached  him,  he  wrote 
Spalatin  he  hoped  it  was  false.  Upon  its  confirmation 
a  day  or  two  later,  he  added :  "The  true  and  miserable 
history  of  Franz  Sickingen  I  heard  and  read  yesterday. 
God  is  a  just  but  wonderful  judge."  Half  a  dozen 
years  later,  in  a  letter  to  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse  he 
classed  the  deceased  knight  with  the  hated  Carlstadt 
and  Miinzer  as  an  insurrectionist,  including  all  three 
in  a  common  condemnation. 

Despite  the  effort  of  his  opponents  to  hold  Luther 
responsible  for  Sickingen's  abortive  attempt,  its  con- 
trolling motive  was  too  apparent  and  too  completely  in 
line  with  the  warlike  knight's  entire  career  to  furnish 
an^  adequate  ground  for  a  serious  attack  upon  the 
reformer,  and  probably  the  affair  lost  him  few  friends 
or  supporters.  On  the  other  hand,  it  very  likely  af- 
fected his  own  attitude,  serving  to  confirm  his  convic- 
tion that  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  is  incompatible 
with  the  use  of  physical  force.  He  saw  more  clearly 
than  ever  the  undesirability  and  impossibility  of  pro- 
moting the  Reformation  by  the  sword.  It  may  be,  had 
Sickingen  been  victorious,  Luther  would  have  seen 
the  hand  of  God  in  his  victory,  as  he  did  in  his  defeat, 
and  would  have  been  led  to  tolerate,  if  not  actively  to 
favor,  such  warlike  measures.  His  somewhat  incon- 
sistent utterances  seem  to  show  that  while  feeling  the 
unchristian  character  of  war  and  violence,  he  was  yet 
not  sure  it  might  not  be  God's  will  in  the  present  junc- 
ture, as  occasionally  in  the  past,  to  put  an  end  to 
existing  evils  by  the  sword.  But  if  he  was  really  in 
doubt,  Sickingen's  fate  settled  the  question  for  him. 
Thenceforth  he  insisted  always  on  the  use  of  peaceful 
measures  only. 


CHAPTER  XVII 
THE  PEASANTS'  WAR 

MUCH  more  disastrous  in  its  effects  upon  the  Ref- 
ormation was  the  Peasants'  War.  This  greatest 
tragedy  of  the  age  had  been  long  preparing.  Fre- 
quently during  recent  generations  the  unhappy  condi- 
tion of  the  peasant  class  had  led  to  more  or  less 
serious  outbreaks,  but  none  of  them  compared  in  im- 
portance with  the  tremendous  uprising  of  1525.  Lu- 
ther was  not  responsible  for  it,  nor  did  it  begin  among 
his  disciples.  It  was  only  the  repetition  on  a  large 
scale  of  many  similar  attempts,  and  the  interests  un- 
derlying all  of  them  were  not  religious,  as  with  him, 
but  economic.  At  the  same  time  it  was  due  in  no  small 
part  to  him  that  this  particular  movement  surpassed  in 
magnitude  any  seen  in  Germany  before  or  since.  His 
attacks  upon  many  features  of  the  existing  order,  his 
criticisms  of  the  growing  luxury  of  the  wealthier 
classes,  his  denunciations  of  the  rapacity  and  greed  of 
great  commercial  magnates  and  of  the  tyranny  and 
corruption  of  rulers  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  all 
tended  to  inflame  the  populace  and  spread  impatience 
and  discontent.  His  gospel  of  Christian  liberty  also 
had  its  effect.  For  the  spiritual  freedom  he  taught, 
multitudes  substituted  freedom  from  political  oppres- 
sion, from  social  injustice,  and  from  economic  bur- 
dens. Then,  too,  the  extraordinary  response  he  had 
met  with,  the  confusion  all  Germany  had  been  thrown 
into  by  the  Reformation,  and  the  wide-spread  weaken- 

250 


THE  PEASANTS'  WAR  251 

ing  of  respect  for  traditional  authority  resulting  there- 
from, made  this  seem  a  peculiarly  favorable  time  for 
the  peasants  to  press  their  claims. 

Early  in  1525  a  series  of  twelve  brief  articles  was 
published  in  southwestern  Germany,  containing  a  very 
moderate  statement  of  the  demands  of  the  peasants, 
as,  for  instance,  the  privilege  of  electing  their  own 
pastors,  the  abolition  of  villeinage,  freedom  to  hunt 
and  fish  and  to  supply  themselves  with  fuel  from  the 
forest,  reduction  of  exorbitant  rents,  extra  payment 
for  extra  labor,  and  restoration  to  the  community  of 
lands  unjustly  appropriated  by  private  persons.  With 
such  demands  as  these  no  one  could  justly  find  fault. 
They  involved  social  reform  only,  not  revolution,  and 
looked  for  the  most  part  simply  to  the  more  equitable 
adjustment  of  existing  conditions. 

At  first. there  was  apparently  no  thought  of  violence. 
The  peasants  were  a  harmless  and  peaceable  folk.  But 
here  and  there  they  gathered  in  large  numbers  to  pre- 
sent their  grievances  and  impress  the  rulers  with  the 
magnitude  of  the  movement.  Unfortunately,  instead 
of  listening  sympathetically  to  their  complaints,  some 
of  the  princes,  fearing  the  effects  of  such  demonstra- 
tions, treated  the  assembled  peasants  as  insurrectionists 
and  dispersed  them  with  the  sword,  maltreating  and 
killing  them  without  mercy.  Their  harshness  and 
cruelty  added  fuel  to  the  flames,  and  the  inevitable  re- 
sult was  a  rapid  growth  of  revolutionary  sentiment  and 
the  spread  of  a  desire  for  retaliation.  The  demands  of 
the  peasants  became  more  extreme  and  unreasonable, 
and  their  peaceful  intentions  widely  gave  way  to 
thoughts  of  war.  Fantastic  and  impossible  notions  of 
a  society  wherein  they  should  be  in  complete  control 
took  possession  of  their  minds.  Communistic  ideas 
of  a  radical  type  gained  currency,  and  the  desire  grew 


252  MARTIN  LUTHER 

to  overthrow  the  whole  social  structure  and  destroy 
all  inequalities  in  property,  employment,  and  rank. 
Thomas  Miinzer  and  other  fanatical  religious  leaders 
threw  themselves  into  the  movement,  and  preached  a 
new  social  order  in  which  there  should  be  no  rulers  or 
subjects,  no  rich  or  poor,  no  cities  or  commerce,  no  art 
or  science,  but  all  should  live  in  primitive  simplicity 
and  equality.  What  was  more,  they  summoned  the 
peasants  and  the  proletariate  of  the  cities  to  bring  in 
the  new  order  by  the  sword.  In  fiery  and  impassioned 
discourse  they  told  the  people  it  was  God's  will  they 
should  everywhere  kill  and  destroy  without  mercy 
until  all  the  mighty  were  laid  low  and  the  promised 
kingdom  of  God  established.  Social  and  religious 
ideals  became  inextricably  mingled.  Counting  confi- 
dently upon  supernatural  aid,  multitudes  without  dis- 
cipline or  adequate  military  preparation  threw  them- 
selves blindly  into  a  conflict  for  which,  as  the  event 
proved,  they  were  wholly  unequipped. 

During  all  this  time  the  peasants'  attitude  toward 
Luther  was  very  diverse.  Miinzer  and  many  other 
radicals  hated  him,  and  could  not  say  enough  against 
him;  but  there  were  also  those  who  regarded  him  as 
the  great  prophet  of  the  new  era  of  social  justice  and 
economic  well-being  they  were  trying  to  usher  in.  His 
was  a  name  to  conjure  with,  and  they  made  the  most 
of  it.  They  appealed  tc  his  gospel  and  quoted  his 
writings  in  support  of  their  programs.  They  called 
themselves  his  followers,  and  declared  it  their  purpose 
to  put  his  principles  into  practice.  And  whatever  was 
true  of  the  leaders,  by  the  great  mass  of  the  peasants 
themselves  it  was  doubtless  honestly  believed  that 
Luther  was  with  them,  and  that  they  could  count  on 
his  sympathy  and  support. 

But  they  utterly  mistook  their  man.    For  a  while  he 


THE  PEASANTS'  WAR  253 

paid  no  attention  to  the  more  or  less  spasmodic  out- 
breaks in  different  parts  of  the  country;  but  as  they 
began  to  grow  serious,  he  came  out  in  April,  1525,  with 
a  brief  tract  entitled,  "An  Exhortation  to  Peace  in 
Response  to  the  Twelve  Articles  of  the  Swabian  Peas- 
ants/' Had  he  been  a  demagogue,  he  would  have 
catered  to  popular  passion  and  spurred  the  excited 
peasants  on  to  war.  Had  he  been  a  politician,  he  would 
have  kept  still  and  refrained  from  taking  sides  until 
he  saw  what  the  outcome  was  to  be.  But  he  was 
neither  the  one  nor  the  other,  and  he  spoke  his  mind 
in  frankest  fashion,  sparing  neither  prince  nor  peasant. 
Both  sides,  he  declared,  were  alike  in  the  wrong,  and 
with  his  usual  vigor  and  fearlessness  he  called  them 
both  sharply  to  account,  the  former  for  their  tyranny 
and  oppression,  the  latter  for  their  threats  of  violence. 
He  informed  the  princes  they  had  God  against  them, 
not  merely  the  peasants,  and  if  they  did  not  cease  ex- 
ploiting their  subjects,  they  would  suffer  the  divine 
vengeance.  On  the  other  hand,  he  exhorted  the  peas- 
ants to  present  their  grievances  in  an  orderly  way, 
without  uproar  or  show  of  force.  Their  complaints 
might  be  well  founded,  but  violence  was  not  thereby 
justified.  Only  the  constituted  authorities  had  the 
right  to  use  the  sword,  and  he  who  attacked  them  on 
any  ground  whatever  was  worse  than  those  whom  he 
attacked.  The  doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of  civil 
rulers,  already  stated  more  than  once  by  Luther,  here 
again  found  emphatic  expression. 

It  was  still  worse  of  the  peasants,  it  seemed  to  him, 
to  seek  justification  for  their  conduct  in  the  gospel  of 
Christ.  If  they  wished  to  fight  for  their  rights  like 
ordinary  men,  well  and  good,  but  he  would  not  stand 
by  in  silence  while  they  used  Christ's  name  in  support 
of  their  course  and  brought  scandal  upon  the  gospel. 


254  MARTIN  LUTHER 

Christianity  comports  only  with  passive  resistance.  If 
they  really  wished  to  follow  Christ,  they  would  drop 
the  sword  and  resort  to  prayer.  The  gospel  has  to  do 
with  spiritual,  not  temporal,  affairs.  Even  to  condemn 
slavery  on  Christian  grounds  is  to  turn  spiritual  free- 
dom into  physical,  and  reduce  the  gospel  to  a  fleshly 
thing.  Earthly  society  cannot  exist  without  inequali- 
ties; the  true  Christian  finds  his  Christian  liberty  and 
his  opportunity  for  Christian  service  in  the  midst  of 
them  and  in  spite  of  them.  To  this  familiar*  Pauline 
point  of  view,  discouraging  every  sort  of  social  revolu- 
tion, unexpected  as  it  might  seem  in  the  author  of  the 
radical  Address  to  the  German  Nobility  published  five 
eventful  years  earlier,  Luther  thenceforth  always  re- 
mained true. 

But  he  did  not  stop  with  this  summary  treatment  of 
the  matter,  dismissing  the  whole  thing  with  a  mere 
exhortation  to  Christian  resignation.  Recognizing  the 
justice  of  many  of  the  peasants'  complaints,  he  went 
on  to  propose  the  arbitration  of  their  grievances.  The 
suggestion  was  eminently  wise,  but  it  showed  how  little 
sympathy  he  had  with  social  change  or  reconstruction. 
At  best,  arbitration  could  do  no  more  than  promote 
justice  in  the  working  of  the  existing  system.  It  could 
not  effect  its  overthrow.  Had  Luther's  advice  been 
followed,  much  bloodshed  would  have  been  avoided 
and  the  more  moderate  demands  of  the  peasants  might 
have  had  some  chance  of  satisfaction.  But  it  was 
wholly  disregarded.  Whatever  was  true  of  the  princes, 
and  some  of  them  actually  did  show  themselves  ready 
enough  to  redress  the  worst  grievances,  the  peasants 
were  by  this  time  too  much  inflamed  and  their  leaders 
far  too  radical  to  listen  to  such  counsel.  The  depreda- 
tions committed  by  them  have  without  doubt  been 
grossly  exaggerated;  but  they  were  bad  enough  as  it 


THE  PEASANTS'  WAR  255 

was,  and  consternation  and  alarm  were  spreading  rap- 
idly among  the  middle  and  upper  classes. 

In  the  course  of  an  extended  tour  through  Thurin- 
gia,  when  the  excitement  was  at  its  height,  Luther  saw 
many  evidences  of  the  riotous  activities  of  the  insur- 
rectionists, and  outraged  by  what  he  witnessed,  he 
came  out  early  in  May  with  another  and  still  more 
powerful  pamphlet  "Against  the  Murderous  and 
Thieving  Mobs  of  Peasants/'  In  some  quarters  rulers 
were  in  doubt  as  to  their  duty.  Perplexed  by  their 
subjects'  appeal  to  the  gospel  and  to  the  word  of  God 
they  were  at  a  loss  how  to  meet  the  situation.  But 
in  Luther's  mind  there  was  no  question.  Consistently 
with  the  principle  frequently  laid  down  and  reiterated 
in  the  previous  tract,  he  denounced  the  mutinous 
peasants  in  unsparing  terms  for  their  resort  to  arms. 
More  than  three  years  before,  in  his  protest  against 
uproar  and  violence,  he  had  said  he  would  support 
those  attacked,  however  bad  they  might  be,  rather  than 
the  aggressors,  however  good  their  cause.  Now  he 
suited  his  action  to  his  words,  and  turned  upon  the 
peasants  with  a  fury  all  his  own. 

The  pamphlet  opened  with  the  strong  words  : 

In  my  previous  book  I  did  not  judge  the  peasants,  for 
they  offered  to  listen  to  instruction  and  yield  to  the  right. 
But  before  I  could  do  anything,  forgetting  their  offer, 
they  rushed  forward  and  plunged  into  the  affair  with 
clenched  fists.  They  rob  and  rage  and  act  like  mad  dogs. 
It  is  easy  enough  to  see  now  what  they  had  in  their  false 
minds.  The  proposals  they  made  in  the  twelve  articles 
on  the  basis  of  the  gospel  were  evidently  nothing  but  lies. 

And  a  little  later : 

Our  peasants  want  to  share  the  goods  of  others  and 
keep  their  own.  Fine  Christians  they  are!  I  doubt 


256  MARTIN  LUTHER 

whether  there  are  any  devils  left  in  hell,  for  they  all 
seem  to  have  entered  into  the  peasants,  and  passion  has 
gone  beyond  all  bounds. 

He  called  upon  the  rulers,  to  whom  God  had  in- 
trusted the  sword  for  the  punishment  of  the  wicked,  to 
put  down  the  warring  rebels  with  a  stern  hand.  They 
were  public  enemies,  and,  like  mad  dogs,  were  to  be 
killed  without  mercy.  He  even  went  so  far  in  the 
vehemence  of  his  wrath  as  to  declare  that  if  any  ruler, 
actuated  with  the  desire  of  doing  God's  will  in  the 
matter,  died  in  the  attempt  to  suppress  the  uprising, 
he  was  a  true  martyr  and  entitled  to  eternal  bliss,  while 
the  warring  peasant  was  doomed  to  hell.  To  be  sure, 
not  all  were  to  be  treated  with  equal  severity.  Mercy 
was  to  be  shown  to  those  deluded  and  misled  by  others, 
and  if  they  surrendered,  they  were  to  be  pardoned  and 
spared.  But  the  ringleaders  and  those  responsible  for 
riot  and  uproar  were  to  be  visited  with  speedy  ven- 
geance, and  at  any  cost  the  rebellion  was  to  be  sum- 
marily crushed. 

The  tract  seemed  over-harsh  and  cruel  even  to 
many  of  his  friends,  and  a  few  weeks  later  he  de- 
fended his  attitude  in  an  open  letter  to  the  Chancellor 
of  Mans f eld,  who  had  addressed  him  upon  the  subject. 
The  letter  is  much  longer  than  the  tract  itself,  and  dis- 
cusses the  whole  matter  in  detail,  but  there  is  no  change 
of  position  at  any  point,  and  the  language  is,  if  any- 
thing, even  more  severe.  "People  say,"  he  remarked, 
"there  you  see  Luther's  spirit.  He  teaches  bloodshed 
without  mercy.  The  devil  must  speak  through  him. 
Well  and  good.  If  I  were  not  accustomed  to  be 
judged  and  condemned,  I  might  be  troubled  by  such 
words."  And  again:  "If  any  one  says  I  am  unkind 
and  unmerciful,  I  answer,  mercy  has  nothing  to  do 


THE  PEASANTS'  WAR  257 

with  the  matter.  We  speak  now  concerning  the  word 
of  God.  He  will  have  honor  shown  the  king  and 
will  have  rebels  destroyed,  and  yet  He  is  certainly  as 
merciful  as  we  are."  "It  is  better  to  cut  off  a  member 
without  any  mercy  than  to  let  the  whole  body  perish." 

His  indignation  at  the  peasants  led  him  to  speak  of 
them  in  very  contemptuous  terms,  as,  for  instance: 
"What  is  more  ill-mannered  than  a  foolish  peasant  or 
a  common  man  when  he  has  enough  and  is  full  and 
gets  power  in  his  hands?"  "The  severity  and  rigor  of 
the  sword  are  as  necessary  for  the  people  as  eating  and 
drinking,  yes,  as  life  itself."  "The  ass  needs  to  be 
beaten,  and  the  populace  needs  to  be  controlled  with  a 
strong  hand.  God  knew  this  well,  and  therefore  He 
gave  the  rulers  not  a  fox's  tail,  but  a  sword." 

Luther's  treatment  of  the  peasants  has  brought  upon 
him  severer  criticism  than  any  other  act  of  his  life, 
but  the  criticism  is  in  part  at  least  misplaced.  It  must 
be  recognized,  to  be  sure,  and  we  may  reproach  him  for 
it,  if  we  please,  that  he  had  very  little  interest  in  social 
reform.  He  was  so  absorbed  in  religion  that  he  failed 
adequately  to  realize  the  social  and  economic  evils  of 
the  day,  and  his  calling  and  associations  had  been  such 
as  to  give  him  sympathy  with  the  middle  rather  than 
with  the  lower  classes  of  society,  with  the  bourgeoisie 
rather  than  with  the  proletariate  and  peasantry.  Had 
he  appreciated  the  evil  conditions  under  which  the 
latter  lived,  and  set  himself  earnestly  at  work  to  im- 
prove them,  he  might  have  accomplished  much.  But 
it  may  fairly  be  doubted  whether  the  era  of  social 
amelioration  in  which  modern  reformers  are  pro- 
foundly and  justly  interested  would  thereby  have  been 
hastened.  Freedom  from  the  traditional  religious  and 
ecclesiastical  bondage  was  a  necessary  condition  of  lib- 
erty in  other  spheres.  Had  it  been  subordinated  to 

17 


258 


MARTIN  LUTHER 


alien  ends,  or  made  only  one  feature  of  a  larger  pro- 
gram, it  would  perhaps  have  remained  unrealized.  Not 
the  peasants  alone,  but  all  classes  of  the  population, 
must  become  convinced  that  religion  was  possible  apart 
from  Rome  before  the  old  absolutism  could  be  per- 
manently broken,  and  anything  less  than  exclusive 
attention  to  the  inculcation  of  that  lesson  might  well 
have  resulted  in  failure. 

But  this  is  neither  here  nor  there.  The  fact  remains, 
lament  it  as  many  may,  that  Luther  was  a  religious,  not 
a  social,  reformer.  Despite  his  temporary  venture  into 
another  field  in  the  summer  of  1520,  he  now  recog- 
nized, as  he  had  for  some  years,  that  he  was  called  to 
work  in  the  religious  field  alone.  Whether  rightly  or 
wrongly,  he  had  become  firmly  convinced  the  Christian 
spirit  could  be  trusted  to  work  out  all  needed  social 
changes.  In  the  meantime  he  was  interested  only  to 
insure  free  course  for  that  spirit.  To  this  end  he  sub- 
ordinated everything  else,  and  his  treatment  of  the 
peasants,  when  riot  and  bloodshed  had  taken  the 
place  of  peaceful  measures,  far  from  being  unworthy 
of  him  and  revealing  inconsistency  and  selfish  policy 
on  his  part,  exhibited  in  the  strongest  light  his  native 
independence  and  strength  of  character.  Order  must 
be  restored,  he  felt,  at  any  hazard.  Not  religion  alone 
was  imperiled,  but  the  necessary  sanctions  of  all  human 
life  were  threatened  with  destruction,  and  every  sane 
and  right-thinking  man  must  hurry  to  the  rescue. 

Had  he  sympathized  adequately  with  the  wrongs  of 
the  peasants,  it  may  be  thought  he  could  have  pre- 
vented affairs  from  reaching  such  a  pass  and  could 
have  kept  the  movement  from  degenerating  into 
anarchy.  However  that  may  be,  and  his  experience 
with  the  fanatics  at  Orlamimde  and  elsewhere  gives 
little  ground  for  the  supposition,  at  any  rate,  the  situa- 


THE  PEASANTS'  WAR  259 

tion  being  what  it  was  in  his  part  of  the  world  in  May, 
1525,  he  did  the  one  thing  needed,  and  he  did  it  with 
his  usual  vigor  and  effectiveness.  As  always,  he  was 
unnecessarily  forcible  in  his  language.  But  to  criticize 
his  choice  of  words  in  such  a  crisis  is  ridiculous.  His 
attitude  in  the  existing  situation  was  essentially  sound 
and  does  credit  both  to  his  wisdom  and  his  courage. 
At  a  time  when  weakness  and  hesitancy  marked  the 
conduct  of  most  of  those  who  should  have  acted 
promptly  and  firmly,  unblinded  by  sentiment  and  un- 
moved by  personal  considerations,  he  came  out  boldly 
and  decisively  for  the  one  course  possible  in  the  cir- 
cumstances. Though  he  knew  it  would  cost  him  his 
popularity  and  alienate  great  masses  of  those  hitherto 
devoted  to  him,  without  hesitating  for  a  moment  he 
spoke  the  word  needed  to  unite  the  forces  of  conserva- 
tion and  bring  order  out  of  chaos.  He  was  right  when 
he  declared  that  firm  and  united  action  on  the  part  of 
the  authorities  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  uprising 
would  have  spared  much  bloodshed.  He  was  right, 
too,  in  doing  what  he  could  to  secure  that  action  at  the 
earliest  possible  moment. 

When  the  princes  took  the  matter  jointly  in  hand, 
the  rebellion  was  quickly  crushed.  Here  and  there 
trouble  continued  for  months,  but  the  movement  as  a 
whole  was  suppressed  before  the  end  of  the  summer. 
It  was  put  down  in  many  places  with  a  heavy  hand,  as 
Luther  had  advised,  while  the  mercy  he  recommended 
was  unfortunately  not  always  shown  to  those  who 
capitulated. 

A  lamentable  tragedy  it  was.  The  destruction  of 
property  both  at  the  hands  of  the  marauding  peasants 
and  of  the  avenging  soldiery  was  very  great.  Large 
districts  of  country  were  devastated,  and  thousands 
lost  their  lives.  As  is  apt  to  happen  when  violence  and 


260  MARTIN  LUTHER 

uproar  get  control,  the  general  movement  toward  the 
amelioration  of  the  lower  classes  was  temporarily 
retarded.  It  was  not  wholly  checked,  to  be  sure.  In 
some  places  great  and  permanent  advances  were  made. 
And  despite  the  wide-spread  disrepute  brought  upon 
the  cause  by  the  war,  and  the  strengthening  of  the  rul- 
ing classes  by  their  all  too  easy  victory,  the  uprising 
was  undoubtedly,  after  all,  only  a  step  in  the  progress 
of  democracy. 

It  seems  a  lasting  pity  that  by  the  failure  of  its 
leaders  to  show  sympathy  with  the  peasants  in  their 
struggle  the  Reformation  permanently  alienated  mul- 
titudes of  them  and  became  almost  exclusively  identi- 
fied with  the  interests  of  the  middle  and  upper  strata 
of  society.  But  they  were  not  necessarily  to  blame. 
The  class  division  was,  perhaps,  in  the  circumstances, 
unavoidable,  and  if  so,  the  identification  of  the  new 
religious  movement  with  the  peasantry  and  proletariate 
would  certainly  have  meant  its  speedy  extinction. 

Upon  Luther  himself  the  effects  were  permanent. 
He  was  hardened  and  embittered.  He  had  to  endure 
the  chagrin  of  seeing  thousands  of  his  supporters  turn 
away  from  him,  many  driven  into  Catholicism  by  the 
apparent  demonstration  of  the  destructive  effects  of 
his  work,  many  into  Anabaptism  by  what  seemed  his 
recreancy  to  the  common  cause  and  his  cruel  desertion 
of  his  own  disciples.  He  ceased  to  be  the  popular  hero 
of  Germany,  and  became  to  multitudes,  especially  in 
the  south  and  west,  an  object  of  hatred  and  execration. 
He  never  regretted  his  action.  He  had  done  what  the 
crisis  demanded,  and  would  have  done  the  same  again 
in  like  circumstances.  But  the  tragedy  sobered  him 
and  robbed  him  of  some  of  his  earlier  buoyancy  and 
hopefulness.  His  confidence  in  the  people  was  per- 
manently shattered,  and  thenceforth  it  always  seemed 


.  • 


^v.     f\ 


M     </?  f^r**  j^  /Wi 
>          rr^tf  .  i^ 


/^      c^  »+ 

-»*J\T-~<*r/ 

ra/ 


*&6r 

/\.7  •  / 

^          (firfa  n « >  /"  ^. ..  \t-'^t^fy  3 


A  LETTER  FROM  LUTHER  TO  THOMAS  CROMWELL, 
HENRY  THE  EIGHTH'S  MINISTER 


THE  PEASANTS'  WAR  261 

necessary  to  hold  them  firmly  in  check  and  control 
them  with  a  strong  hand.  The  culminating  event  in  a 
succession  of  similar  experiences  covering  more  than 
three  years,  the  war  led  him  to  realize  the  dangers  of 
radicalism  and  to  draw  more  narrowly  the  bounds 
within  which  the  Reformation  was  thenceforth  to 
move.  We  may  be  thankful  he  was  able  to  disentangle 
his  cause  from  the  perilous  alliance  with  radicalism 
and  revolution  and  to  carry  it  forward  despite  friends 
and  foes;  but  the  disentanglement  cost  both  him  and 
Protestantism  dear,  and  we  may  well  deplore  the  situ- 
ation which  made  it  necessary. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  BREAK  WITH  HUMANISM 

ONE  of  the  tragedies  of  Luther's  career,  in  its 
effects  scarcely  less  unfortunate  than  the  peasants' 
war,  was  the  alienation  of  the  great  mass  of  humanists, 
many  of  them  at  first  his  warmest  admirers  and  sup- 
porters. The  liberals  of  the  day,  they  were  opposed, 
as  he  too  was,  to  scholasticism  and  ultramontanism. 
They  were  also  interested  to  reform  educational  ideals 
and  methods,  and  some  of  them  religion  and  morals  as 
well.  Their  cause  and  his  thus  seemed  for  some  time 
identical,  and  he  was  generally  regarded  as  a  rising 
champion  of  the  newer  learning. 

The  acknowledged  prince  of  living  humanists  was 
Desiderius  Erasmus  of  Rotterdam.  Born  in  1467  and 
enjoying  already  before  Luther  came  into  public  notice 
a  world-wide  reputation  as  scholar  and  writer,  he  exer- 
cised during  the  first  quarter  of  the  sixteenth  century 
an  influence  in  the  commonwealth  of  European  letters 
equaled  by  no  other  man.  He  was  forced  into  the 
monastic  life  against  his  will  when  but  a  boy,  and 
although  later  released  by  a  papal  dispensation,  re- 
tained a  lifelong  aversion  to  monasticism  and  a  life- 
long contempt  for  the  average  monk.  The  supersti- 
tions and  vices  both  of  monks  and  priests  he  castigated 
in  merciless  fashion,  above  all  in  his  famous  satire 
"The  Praise  of  Folly,"  gaining  thereby  with  many  the 
name  of  a  mere  scoffer  at  sacred  things,  with  others 
the  fame  of  a  reformer. 

262 


THE  BREAK  WITH  HUMANISM       263 

Inconsistent  as  much  of  his  mockery  and  persiflage 
seems  with  any  serious  purpose,  he  was  really  pro- 
foundly interested  in  religious  reform.  In  his  "Hand- 
book of  a  Christian  Soldier"  he  set  forth  in  fascinating 
style  the  program  of  an  ethical  Christianity,  simplified 
by  the  stripping  off  of  unessential  accessories  of  ritual 
and  dogma,  and  consisting  chiefly  in  imitating  Jesus 
in  unselfish  labor  for  one's  fellows.  "Back  to  Christ" 
was  his  program,  as  of  so  many  other  reform- 
ing spirits  of  the  age,  and  on  its  behalf  he  employed 
his  great  learning  in  editing  the  texts  of  the  New 
Testament  and  the  works  of  some  of  the  early  fathers, 
thus  performing  a  lasting  service  to  biblical  and  pa- 
tristic scholarship. 

Though  ready  enough  to  attack  existing  evils  with 
caustic  wit  and  biting  sarcasm,  and  though  deeply  con- 
cerned in  the  purification  of  the  Christian  system,  he 
was  essentially  a  scholar  and  a  man  of  letters,  not  a 
warrior.  He  not  only  shrank  instinctively  from  vio- 
lence and  tumult,  but  earnestly  deprecated  them  as 
tending  always  to  do  more  harm  than  good.  Evils  he 
believed  could  be  eradicated  only  by  a  slow  and  grad- 
ual process.  Education,  not  revolution,  was  the  one 
effective  method  of  reform.  He  therefore  remained 
to  the  end  of  his  days  within  the  Catholic  fold,  de- 
clining to  be  dragged  into  open  conflict  with  the  eccle- 
siastical authorities  and  refusing  to  countenance  re- 
bellion and  schism. 

When  Luther's  theses  on  indulgences  came  to  his 
notice,  he  praised  the  acumen  and  boldness  of  the 
Wittenberg  monk,  and  for  some  years  followed  his 
career  with  interest.  He  spoke  favorably  of  him  to 
the  Elector  Frederick  as  well  as  to  many  others,  and 
did  what  he  could  to  prevent  his  condemnation  at  the 
Diet  of  Worms,  not  so  much,  to  be  sure,  on  Luther's 


264  MARTIN  LUTHER 

account  as  from  general  hostility  to  the  use  of  force 
in  dealing  with  matters  of  faith. 

He  was  not  blind  to  the  fact  that  Luther's  spirit  and 
ideals  were  different  from  his  own.  At  the  very  be- 
ginning he  detected  the  note  of  passion  in  the  Saxon 
reformer's  writings  and  feared  he  would  go  too  far. 
He  was  careful  to  express  his  sympathy  very  guard- 
edly and  to  disavow  all  responsibility  for  the  Witten- 
berger's  acts,  even  declaring  repeatedly  that  he  had  not 
read  his  writings  and  hence  could  form  no  judgment 
as  to  the  right  or  wrong  of  his  opinions.  Luther's 
radical  work  on  "The  Babylonian  Captivity  of  the 
Church"  seemed  a  grave  blunder  to  him,  and  he  was 
particularly  irritated  to  have  it  laid  by  many  at  his 
own  door  before  its  real  authorship  was  generally 
known.  He  had  carefully  avoided  attacking  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Catholic  system  and  thus  incurring  the 
charge  of  heresy,  believing  that  if  the  ethical  ele- 
ments of  Christianity  were  put  in  the  forefront  the 
existing  dogmas  would  insensibly  lose  importance  and 
cease  to  do  harm.  To  pursue  the  opposite  course  he 
saw  was  to  precipitate  war  and  make  quiet  and  peace- 
ful amelioration  impossible.  Even  now  he  refrained 
from  openly  opposing  Luther,  but  in  conversation  and 
letters  he  let  his  growing  disapproval  of  his  course  be 
clearly  known,  and  after  the  papal  bull  appeared  in 
1520  he  wrote  an  obsequious  letter  to  the  pope,  dis- 
claiming all  sympathy  with  the  condemned  heretic. 

Luther,  too,  felt  at  an  early  day  the  difference  be- 
tween Erasmus's  spirit  and  his  own.  Although  shar- 
ing the  general  admiration  for  the  great  humanist's 
learning  and  ability,  he  wrote  his  friend  Lang  in  the 
spring  of  1517: 

I  am  reading  our  Erasmus  and  my  liking  for  him  is 
daily  decreasing,  I  am  pleased  indeed  to  see  how  con- 


THE  BREAK  WITH  HUMANISM       265 

stantly  and  learnedly  he  censures  monks  as  well  as 
priests  and  exposes  their  inveterate  and  somnolent  ig- 
norance. But  I  fear  he  does  not  sufficiently  advance  the 
grace  of  Christ,  concerning  which  he  is  much  more  ig- 
norant than  d'£taples.  Human  things  count  more  with 
him  than  divine. 

In  March,  1519,  when  the  storm  was  gathering 
about  his  head  and  he  was  beginning  to  feel  the  need 
of  allies  in  the  war  against  the  common  foe,  he  wrote 
at  Melanchthon's  instigation  his  first  letter  to  Eras- 
mus, expressing  his  veneration  in  strong  terms  and 
saying  nothing  of  his  disagreements  with  him.  Later, 
as  the  conflict  waxed  warm,  and  the  necessity  of  taking 
sides  grew  more  imperative,  his  impatience  with  the 
attitude  of  the  great  humanist  increased,  and  he  too 
let  his  dissatisfaction  be  widely  known.  Ultimately 
his  hatred  and  contempt  became  so  bitter  that  he  could 
hardly  speak  of  him  with  moderation.  It  was  impos- 
sible for  him  to  do  justice  to  the  older  man.  Con- 
vinced as  he  was  of  the  necessity  of  strong  measures, 
he  was  quite  unable  to  appreciate  Erasmus's  attitude, 
and  to  the  latter's  great  annoyance  laid  his  conduct 
wholly  to  levity  and  skepticism,  or  to  cowardice  and 
self-interest.  In  1533  he  referred  to  him  as  a  "foe  of 
all  religions  and  particularly  of  Christ;  a  perfect  ex- 
ample and  image  of  Epicurus  and  Lucian."  In  this 
condemnation  he  set  the  fashion  for  his  followers,  and 
Erasmus  has  ever  since  received  scant  credit  for  sincer- 
ity and  seriousness  of  purpose.  Of  a  different  kind 
was  Luther's  somewhat  amusing  judgment  expressed 
in  the  following  epigram :  "Philip  has  both  matter  and 
words,  Erasmus  words  without  matter,  Luther  matter 
without  words,  Carlstadt  neither  matter  nor  words." 

Realizing  Erasmus's  tremendous  influence  and  recog- 
nizing his  great  services  to  the  cause  of  letters,  Luther 


266  MARTIN  LUTHER 

wished  no  open  controversy  with  him  and  exercised 
an  unusual  degree  of  self-restraint  in  the  effort  to 
avoid  giving  him  open  occasion  of  offense.  Erasmus 
was  equally  averse  to  a  conflict  with  the  Wittenberg 
reformer.  Unsympathetic  as  he  was  with  Luther's 
aims  and  impatient  with  his  methods,  to  attack  him 
openly  meant  only  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  a  party 
in  the  church  to  which  he  was  no  less  bitterly  opposed. 
His  was  the  trying  situation  of  every  moderate  man 
when  the  battle  is  on  between  two  enemies  fighting 
for  extreme  positions,  both  alike  alien  to  him. 

Had  he  been  a  less  important  personage,  he  might 
have  remained  silent,  but  all  Europe  was  eager  to 
know  where  he  stood,  and  at  length,  forced  to  it  by  im- 
portunate friends  and  by  the  conviction  that  he  must 
publicly  take  sides  or  be  included  in  a  common  con- 
demnation, he  came  out  in  the  autumn  of  1524,  despite 
a  letter  of  protest  from  Luther  himself,  with  a  work 
on  'The  Freedom  of  the  Will"  in  which  the  reformer's 
doctrine  of  human  bondage  was  subjected  to  sharp 
though  formally  courteous  criticism. 

In  attacking  this  particular  position,  Erasmus 
singled  out  the  one  point  where  Luther  differed  most 
widely  at  the  same  time  with  Romanists  and  human- 
ists. In  most  of  his  departures  from  the  traditional 
faith  more  or  less  secret  if  not  avowed  sympathy  must 
be  felt  with  him  by  the  modern  spirits  of  the  day,  but 
in  denying  the  freedom  of  the  human  will  and  in 
insisting  upon  absolute  divine  control  he  was  not  only 
rejecting  the  basis  for  the  Catholic  belief  that  the 
Christian  must  earn  his  salvation  by  meritorious  works, 
but  was  also  flying  in  the  face  of  the  modern  tendency 
to  emphasize  the  natural  ability  and  independence  of 
man.  Here  at  least  orthodox  and  liberals  must  agree 
to  think  him  wrong. 


THE  BREAK  WITH  HUMANISM       267 

Luther  recognized  Erasmus's  book  as  the  most  tell- 
ing of  all  the  attacks  made  upon  him,  and  long  after- 
ward declared  it  was  the  only  one  he  had  ever  read 
through.  He  wrote  some  of  his  friends  of  his  purpose 
to  reply  to  it  as  soon  as  he  had  leisure,  but  his  answer 
was  deferred  for  more  than  a  year,  when  he  finally 
published  a  large  book  on  "The  Bondage  of  the  Will," 
the  most  carefully  written  and  in  his  own  opinion  the 
best  of  all  his  works.  In  replying  to  the  great  littera- 
teur he  felt  the  importance  of  adopting  a  tone  unlike 
his  usual  one,  and  the  whole  discussion  moves  on  a 
high  plane.  The  style  is  careful  and  the  personalities 
so  frequently  indulged  in  are  almost  wholly  lacking. 
It  is  an  example  of  dignified  polemic  such  as  we  might 
wish  had  been  commoner  with  him. 

But  in  the  subject-matter  itself  there  was  no  com- 
promise. Nothing  could  be  more  extreme  than  his 
statement  of  the  theory  of  determinism.  Regarding 
it  as  a  fundamental  doctrine,  inextricably  bound  up 
with  his  gospel  of  salvation  by  faith  alone,  he  de- 
fended it  with  all  the  earnestness  and  vigor  he  was 
capable  of;  while  he  took  the  pains  to  denounce  in 
sweeping  terms  any  dependence  upon  human  reason 
as  impious  and  heathen.  To  accept  unquestioningly 
God's  revelations  of  truth,  however  irrational  they 
may  appear,  is  as  much  a  duty  as  to  submit  uncom- 
plainingly to  His  absolute  decrees,  however  harsh  they 
seem. 

Nowhere  does  the  difference  between  Luther's  re- 
ligious principles  and  those  of  the  typical  humanist  ap- 
pear more  clearly  than  in  this  book.  What  we  know  as 
the  evangelical  type  of  Christian  experience,  with  its 
renunciation  of  all  self-confidence,  is  as  far  as  possible 
from  the  rationalistic,  with  its  emphasis  upon  the 
moral  and  intellectual  ability  of  man.  Luther  was  a 


268  MARTIN  LUTHER 

genuine  evangelical.  And  if  Erasmus  was  not  a 
thoroughgoing  rationalist,  as  his  book  on  free  will, 
with  its  recognition  of  the  constant  need  of  divine 
grace,  abundantly  shows,  his  spirit  was  akin  to  that  of 
the  rationalists  of  all  ages.  Religious  and  ethical  as 
the  great  humanist  really  was,  to  Luther  he  appeared 
no  better  than  a  heathen;  while  to  Erasmus  Luther's 
Christianity  seemed  benighted  to  the  last  degree. 

The  controversy  between  the  two  great  men  was 
very  unfortunate.  It  completed  the  break  between  hu- 
manism and  the  Reformation.  Luther's  violence  had 
alienated  some  of  his  admirers,  and  his  program  of 
ecclesiastical  revolution  had  driven  others  from  his 
side.  It  now  became  apparent  to  everybody  that  his 
principles  and  ideals  were  wholly  unlike  those  of  the 
humanists,  and  it  seemed  necessary  to  choose  between 
the  two.  Many  remained  faithful  to  the  reformer, 
counting  his  cause  the  more  important.  But  to  not  a 
few  humanism  was  still  dearer,  and  they  turned  their 
backs  on  him  forever.  He  lost  in  1525  the  devotion 
and  confidence  of  the  peasants;  the  same  fateful  year 
confirmed  the  alienation  of  the  leading  intellectuals. 
Once  more  the  new  movement  was  narrowed  and  its 
appeal  circumscribed. 

In  these  years  the  complaint  was  very  frequently 
heard  that  the  Reformation  had  put  a  stop  to  all  intel- 
lectual development  and  sadly  retarded  learning  and 
culture.  Instead  of  bringing  greater  freedom  and  en- 
lightenment, it  had  promoted  narrowness  and  bigotry, 
substituting  religious  controversy  for  the  quiet  pursuit 
of  the  humanities  and  for  the  peaceful  growth  of  a 
higher  civilization. 

There  was,  no  doubt,  some  truth  in  this  complaint, 
as  Luther  himself  realized.  But  though  his  controlling 
interest  was  religious,  not  intellectual,  and  the  aims 


From  a  carbon  print  by  Braun  £  Co.  of  the  painting 
bv  Holbein  in  the  Louvre 


THE  BREAK  WITH  HUMANISM       269 

of  the  Reformation  were  other  than  those  of  the  hu- 
manists, he  had  as  keen  an  appreciation  as  anybody 
of  the  importance  of  education  and  did  all  he  could 
to  prevent  ignorance  and  barbarism  among  his  fol- 
lowers. In  the  spring  of  1523  he  wrote  the  humanist 
Eoban  Hess : 

Do  not  be  troubled  by  the  notion  that  letters  will  be 
overthrown  by  our  theology  and  we  Germans  become 
more  barbarous  than  ever.  Some  people  fear  where  there 
is  no  fear.  Without  the  knowledge  of  letters  pure  the- 
ology, I  am  persuaded,  will  in  the  future  be  unable  to 
flourish,  as  in  the  past  it  has  most  miserably  fallen  and 
lain  in  ruins  whenever  literature  has  declined.  Never,  I 
can  see,  has  there  been  a  signal  revelation  of  the  word  of 
God  unless,  as  by  a  John  the  Baptist,  the  way  was  pre- 
pared for  it  by  a  revival  of  languages  and  letters.  No 
youthful  crime  would  I  decry  more  than  the  failure  to 
study  poetry  and  rhetoric.  It  is  my  earnest  wish  that 
there  may  be  as  many  poets  and  rhetoricians  as  possible, 
for  by  these  studies,  I  perceive,  as  by  no  other  means  men 
are  made  apt  for  undertaking  and  skilfully  pursuing 
sacred  employments. 

In  his  "Address  to  the  German  Nobility"  he  empha- 
sized the  need  of  a  reformation  of  schools  and  uni- 
versities and  called  upon  the  civil  rulers  to  take  it  in 
hand.  In  1524  he  published  an  open  letter  addressed 
to  all  the  city  councils  of  Germany,  urging  the  imme- 
diate erection  of  public  schools  and  public  libraries, 
setting  forth  the  tremendous  importance  of  popular 
education,  on  secular,  not  merely  religious  grounds, 
and  laying  upon  the  municipal  authorities  the  respon- 
sibility for  its  maintenance,  hitherto  largely  borne  by 
the  church. 

Even  if  we  had  no  souls,  and  schools  and  languages 
were  not  needed  for  God's  sake  and  the  Bible's,  there 


270  MARTIN  LUTHER 

would  still  be  ground  enough  for  establishing  the  best 
possible  schools  both  for  boys  and  girls,  for  the  world 
needs  fine  and  capable  men  and  women  to  conduct  its 
affairs,  that  the  men  may  rule  land  and  people  wisely  and 
the  women  keep  house  and  train  their  children  and  ser- 
vants as  they  should.  Such  men  are  made  of  boys  and 
such  women  of  girls,  and  hence  it  is  necessary  to  educate 
the  boys  and  girls  properly.  As  I  have  already  said,  the 
common  man  does  nothing  to  help.  He  cannot  and  will 
not  and  does  not  know  how.  Princes  and  lords  should 
do  it,  but  they  have  to  go  sleigh-riding,  drink,  and  play 
at  masquerades,  and  are  burdened  with  multiform  and 
important  duties  of  cellar,  kitchen,  and  chamber.  And 
even  if  some  of  them  were  well  disposed,  they  would  be 
afraid  to  take  hold  lest  they  be  regarded  as  fools  or 
heretics.  And  so,  dear  magistrates,  the  thing  remains 
wholly  in  your  hands. 

Public  schools,  he  insisted,  should  be  established  for 
instruction  especially  in  the  ancient  languages— Latin, 
Greek,  and  Hebrew — and  in  history,  mathematics,  and 
music. 

So  far  as  I  am  concerned,  if  I  had  children,  and  could 
manage  it,  I  would  make  them  learn  not  only  languages 
and  history,  but  music  and  the  whole  of  mathematics  as 
well.  What  is  it  all  but  mere  child's  play  ?  And  yet  the 
Greeks  trained  their  children  in  it  and  thereby  raised  a 
wonderfully  capable  people,  skilful  in  all  sorts  of  things. 
How  sorry  I  am  that  I  did  not  read  more  poetry  and 
history  and  that  they  were  not  taught  me!  Instead  of 
them,  I  had  to  spend  my  time  on  devil's  filth,  the  philos- 
ophers and  sophists,  with  great  labor  and  damage,  so  that 
I  had  enough  to  get  rid  of. 

In  good  humanistic  fashion  he  advised  that  the  texts 
used  in  the  schools  should  not  be  limited  to  Christian 
authors.  He  would  have  heathen  writers  studied  as 


THE  BREAK  WITH  HUMANISM       271 

well  for  training  in  language  and  literature.  For  the 
physical  sciences  he  made  no  place  in  school  or  uni- 
versity curriculum,  but  in  this  he  was  not  singular. 
They  had  not  yet  dawned  upon  the  horizon  of  the  ad- 
vocates either  of  the  older  or  the  newer  learning.  Nor 
was  he  alive  to  the  significance  of  the  awakening  sci- 
entific interest  of  the  day.  The  following  passage 
from  the  "Table  Talk,"  referring  to  his  contemporary 
Copernicus,  who  had  a  disciple  in  the  Wittenberg 
faculty  in  the  person  of  the  mathematician  Rheticus, 
illustrates  Luther's  general  attitude,  which  was  shared, 
it  may  be  remarked,  by  most  men  of  the  century,  in- 
cluding many  of  its  greatest  thinkers : 

A  new  astrologer  was  mentioned  who  wished  to  prove 
that  the  earth  moves  and  revolves  instead  of  the  heavens, 
the  firmament,  the  sun  and  the  moon;  just  as  when  one 
sitting  in  a  wagon  or  ship  imagines  he  is  still  and  the 
earth  and  the  trees  are  marching  by.  So  it  is  nowadays. 
Who  would  be  wise  must  not  allow  himself  to  be  pleased 
by  anything  which  others  do ;  he  must  do  something  origi- 
nal and  claim  his  way  of  doing  it  is  best  of  all.  The  fool 
wishes  to  revolutionize  the  whole  science  of  astronomy. 
But,  as  the  Holy  Scriptures  show,  Joshua  commanded  the 
sun  to  stand  still,  not  the  earth. 

In  1530,  in  a  very  important  pamphlet,  entitled 
"That  Children  Should  be  Kept  in  School,"  he  re-  / 
emphasized  the  necessity  of  an  elementary  education 
for  everybody,  girls  as  well  as  boys,  and  advocated 
compulsory  school  attendance.  In  this  work  he  also 
pleaded  with  people  of  wealth  to  found  scholarships 
for  the  support  of  indigent  students  of  exceptional 
promise  who  were  fitted  for  a  more  advanced  training. 

In  much  of  this  he  was  laying  foundations  upon 
which  our  modern  educational  systems  are  built  in  no 


272  MARTIN  LUTHER 

small  part.  In  spite  of  his  break  with  humanism  and 
his  primary  interest  in  religious  reform,  he  rendered 
incalculable  services  to  the  cause  of  popular  and  secu- 
lar education.  The  University  of  Wittenberg  re- 
mained for  many  decades  a  noble  monument  to  his 
influence  as  well  as  to  Melanchthon's.  It  was  the  first 
European  institution  to  teach  the  three  ancient  lan- 
guages, Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin,  and  already  before 
his  death  it  was  the  greatest  university  of  Germany. 
The  little  Saxon  town,  long  distinguished  as  the 
Athens  of  the  empire,  was  resorted  to  by  aspiring 
scholars  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  Late  in  the  cen- 
tury the  fugitive  philosopher  Giordano  Bruno  found 
there  a  hospitable  welcome,  and  spent  two  of  the  hap- 
piest and  most  active  years  of  his  life  within  its  walls. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

MARRIAGE 

NOT  far  from  the  banks  of  the  Mulde,  just  above 
the  town  of  Grimma,  stand  the  ruins  of  the 
wealthy  Cistercian  convent  of  Nimbschen.  In  1523 
one  of  its  inmates  was  Katharine  von  Bora,  daughter 
of  a  nobleman,  Hans  von  Bora,  whose  modest  estates 
lay  only  a  few  miles  to  the  west.  She  was  born  on 
January  29,  1499,  probably  in  the  little  village  of 
Lippendorf,  where  her  father  had  a  residence.  Her 
mother  died  and  her  father  married  again  when  Kath- 
arine was  but  a  small  child,  and  after  spending  some 
time  away  at  school,  she  was  set  apart  for  the  religious 
life,  and  put  into  the  convent  at  Nimbschen  when  only 
nine  or  ten  years  old. 

Like  many  another,  this  particular  convent  drew  its 
inmates  chiefly  from  the  daughters  of  the  local  nobil- 
ity. At  the  time  of  Katharine's  entrance,  one  of  her 
relatives  was  abbess,  and  her  father's  sister  was  among 
the  nuns.  The  residents  numbered  more  than  forty, 
and  included  many  young  girls  like  herself  in  training 
for  the  religious  life.  Though  not  of  her  own  choos- 
ing, she  grew  into  the  life  naturally,  as  her  companions 
did,  and  was  quite  ready  to  take  the  veil  when  she 
reached  the  age  of  sixteen. 

The  discipline  of  the  convent  was  not  over-strict, 
and  Katharine  and  her  sister  nuns  were  apparently 
happy  and  contented  until  the  influence  of  Luther's 
is  273 


274  MARTIN  LUTHER 


movement  began  to  be  felt.  The  convent,  with  the 
neighboring  town  of  Grimma,  lay  within  the  bor- 
ders of  electoral  Saxony,  in  a  region  permeated  with 
the  new  ideas.  As  early  as  1522,  the  prior  of  the 
Augustinian  monastery  at  Grimma,  a  relative  of  two 
of  the  Nimbschen  nuns,  renounced  monasticism  with 
a  number  of  his  monks.  It  was  perhaps  the  contagion 
of  their  example  that  led  some  of  the  inmates  of  the 
near-by  convent  to  wish  for  freedom,  and  when  their 
relatives  refused  to  do  anything  for  them,  they  ap- 
pealed to  Luther  for  help.  Their  consciences,  enlight- 
ened by  the  gospel,  did  not  permit  them,  so  they 
claimed,  to  live  longer  as  nuns,  and  hence  he  felt  in 
duty  bound  to  come  to  their  assistance.  A  Torgau 
friend,  Leonard  Koppe,  who  had  business  dealings 
with  the  convent,  was  commissioned  to  arrange  the 
escape.  On  Easter  eve,  1523,  a  number  of  nuns,  in- 
cluding Magdalen  von  Staupitz,  a  sister  of  Luther's 
old  superior,  and  Katharine  von  Bora,  left  the  place 
secretly,  and  made  their  way  hurriedly  to  Wittenberg, 
where  they  arrived  on  Tuesday  of  Easter  week. 

A  month  later  a  Wittenberg  student  wrote  his  old 
teacher,  Beatus  Rhenanus :  "I  have  no  other  news  to 
write  except  that  a  few  days  ago  a  wagon  landed  here 
full  and  loaded  down  with  vestal  virgins,  as  they  call 
them,  who  desire  as  much  to  marry  as  to  live.  May 
God  provide  them  husbands,  that  they  may  not  in 
course  of  time  fall  into  worse  evils !" 

As  Luther  had  helped  the  nuns  to  escape,  he  felt 
responsible  for  their  welfare,  and  put  them  up  tem- 
porarily in  the  Wittenberg  cloister,  already  emptied 
of  most  of  its  monks.  Immediately  after  their  arrival, 
he  wrote  Spalatin  of  his  plans  for  them,  expressing 
the  hope  that  he  could  find  homes  for  some  of  them 
and  husbands  for  others.  At  the  same  time  he  asked 


. 


MARRIAGE  275 

for  money  to  support  them  until  they  were  properly 
disposed  of,  for  he  was  too  poor  to  help  them  himself. 
Luther's  colleague  Amsdorf  also  wrote  Spalatin : 

Not  nine,  but  twelve  nuns  escaped.  Nine  of  them  have 
come  to  us.  They  are  beautiful  and  ladylike,  and  all  are 
of  noble  birth  and  under  fifty  years  of  age.  The  oldest 
of  them,  the  sister  of  my  gracious  lord  and  uncle,  Dr. 
Staupitz,  I  have  selected,  my  dear  brother,  as  your  wife, 
that  you  may  boast  of  your  brother-in-law,  as  I  boast 
of  my  uncle.  But  if  you  wish  a  younger  one,  you  may 
have  your  choice  among  the  most  beautiful  of  them.  If 
you  desire  to  give  something  to  the  poor,  give  it  to  them, 
fcr  they  are  destitute,  and  deserted  by  their  friends.  I 
pity  the  creatures.  They  have  neither  shoes  nor  clothes. 
My  dearest  brother,  I  beg,  if  you  can  get  something  for 
them  from  the  court,  you  will  supply  them  with  food 
and  clothing.  You  must  make  haste,  for  they  are  in 
great  poverty  and  anxiety,  but  very  patient.  I  wonder 
indeed  how  they  can  be  so  brave  and  merry  when  in  such 
distress  and  want. 

Within  a  short  time  six  of  the  nuns  were  taken  in 
charge  by  relatives  or  friends,  while  three  of  them 
remained  in  Wittenberg,  two  sisters  finding  a  home 
with  the  Cranachs,  and  Katharine  von  Bora  with  the 
family  of  a  prominent  lawyer,  Philip  Reichenbach. 

Katharine  was  a  girl  of  considerable  spirit,  and 
apparently  held  her  head  high.  When  she  reached 
Wittenberg  a  former  student,  Jerome  Baumgartner, 
son  of  a  patrician  family  of  Nuremberg,  was  visiting 
Melanchthon.  He  and  Katharine  speedily  fell  in  love, 
and  it  was  hoped  a  match  could  be  arranged  between 
them;  but  he  returned  home  in  June,  and  perhaps  be- 
cause of  the  objections  of  his  family  to  his  marriage 
with  an  escaped  nun,  the  affair  was  broken  off.  Nearly 
a  year  and  a  half  later  Luther  still  hoped  they  might 


276  MARTIN  LUTHER 

yet  marry  and  wrote  Baumgartner:  "If  you  wish  to 
keep  your  Kathe  von  Bora,  make  haste  before  she  is 
given  to  another  who  is  at  hand.  She  has  not  yet 
conquered  her  love  for  you,  and  I  should  certainly 
rejoice  to  see  you  joined  to  each  other."  Whether 
Baumgartner  replied  to  this  letter,  we  do  not  know. 
At  any  rate,  nothing  came  of  it,  though  Luther,  and 
Katharine,  too,  for  that  matter,  remained  his  friends 
as  long  as  they  lived. 

The  new  suitor  referred  to  by  Luther  was  the  theolo- 
gian Casper  Glatz,  rector  of  Wittenberg  University. 
Not  finding  him  to  her  liking,  Katharine  refused  him, 
and  in  March,  1525,  when  the  wealthy  bachelor  Ams- 
dorf,  then  pastor  of  the  city  church  in  Magdeburg, 
was  visiting  Luther,  she  begged  him  to  urge  the  latter 
not  to  force  her  into  a  marriage  which  was  distasteful 
to  her.  At  the  same  time  she  naively  assured  him  that 
while  she  was  unwilling  to  marry  Glatz,  she  would  take 
either  Amsdorf  himself  or  Luther,  if  she  were  asked. 
Amsdorf,  feeling  no  inclination  to  marry  either  then 
or  later,  passed  the  information  on  to  Luther,  who 
began  to  think  of  Katharine,  apparently  for  the  first 
time,  as  a  possible  wife  for  himself. 

He  had  not  been  attracted  by  her  at  first.  She 
seemed  over-proud.  And  if  he  had  been  in  a  mood  to 
marry  at  the  time,  he  would  have  preferred  her  friend 
Ave  von  Schonfeld,  as  he  remarked  years  afterward. 
But  Katharine's  suggestion  seemingly  had  its  effect. 
He  began  to  regard  her  in  a  new  light,  and  within  a 
few  weeks  had  made  up  his  mind  to  marry  her  himself. 
She  was  not  beautiful,  as  her  existing  portraits  abun- 
dantly show,  but  Erasmus  once  spoke  of  her,  probably 
on  the  authority  of  Wittenberg  friends,  as  wonder- 
fully charming,  and  she  was  at  any  rate  a  girl  of  strong 
character  and  unusual  gifts.  She  was  highly  thought 


LUTHER'S  WIFE,  KATHARINE  VON  BORA, 

IN  MIDDLE  LIFE 

From  a  medallion  made  in  1540  and  now 
in  the  church  at  Kieritzsch 


MARRIAGE  277 

of  in  Wittenberg,  where  she  was  known  among  her 
young  companions  by  the  name  of  Catharine  of  Siena, 
and  the  best  people  in  town  were  her  warm  friends. 
When  the  exiled  King  Christian  of  Denmark  was  vis- 
iting Lucas  Cranach  in  the  autumn  of  1523,  he  pre- 
sented her  with  a  gold  ring  which  she  prized  as  long 
as  she  lived.  She  was  certainly  no  ordinary  girl,  and 
her  remark  to  Amsdorf  shows  her  own  appreciation  of 
the  fact. 

Luther  himself  had  for  a  long  time  been  gradually 
growing  accustomed  to  the  thought  of  marrying.  One 
after  another  of  his  followers  had  renounced  his 
priestly  or  monastic  vows  and  taken  a  wife,  and  he 
had  been  repeatedly  urged  to  do  the  like.  Others  were 
putting  his  principles  into  practice,  why  should  he  hold 
back  ?  It  was  hoped  he  would  marry  a  wealthy  woman 
of  some  prominent  family,  and  more  than  one  eligible 
young  lady  was  warmly  recommended  to  him  by  his 
friends.  In  the  summer  of  1521  he  wrote  Spalatin 
from  the  Wartburg:  "Good  God!  will  our  Witten- 
bergers  give  wives  even  to  the  monks  ?  But  they  shall 
not  force  a  wife  on  me!"  In  his  Church  Postils  of 
1522,  after  attacking  the  monastic  vow,  he  remarked: 
"I  hope  I  have  come  so  far  that  by  God's  grace  I  can 
remain  as  I  am.  At  the  same  time,  I  am  not  yet  over 
the  mountain,  and  do  not  venture  to  boast  of  my  conti- 
nence." We  hear  no  further  references  to  the  matter 
until  November,  1524,  when  he  wrote  Spalatin: 

I  thank  Argula  for  what  she  writes  me  concerning 
my  marrying.  I  do  not  wonder  at  such  gossip,  for  all 
sorts  of  reports  are  circulated  about  me.  Thank  her  in 
my  name,  and  tell  her  I  am  in  God's  hands,  a  creature 
whose  heart  he  is  able  to  change  and  change  again,  to 
kill  and  make  alive  every  hour  and  moment.  But  so  long 
as  I  am  in  my  present  mood  I  shall  not  marry.  Not  that 


278  MARTIN  LUTHER 

1  do  not  feel  my  sex,  for  my  heart  is  neither  wood  nor 
stone;  but  my  inclination  is  against  marriage,  for  I  am 
in  daily  expectation  of  death  and  of  punishment  suited 
to  a  heretic.  I  will  not  on  this  account  set  bounds  to 
God's  work  in  me,  nor  will  I  rely  upon  my  own  heart. 
But  I  hope  he  will  not  let  me  live  long. 

Although  in  1521  he  had  admonished  Spalatin  not 
to  marry,  and  so  incur  tribulation  of  the  flesh,  in  April, 
1525,  he  wrote  him: 

Why  do  you  not  proceed  to  get  married  ?  I  am  urging 
others  with  so  many  arguments  that  I  am  myself  almost 
persuaded ;  for  our  enemies  do  not  cease  to  condemn  this 
way  of  living,  and  our  wiseacres  daily  laugh  at  it. 

A  few  days  later  he  wrote  again,  in  a  jocular  vein : 

So  far  as  my  marriage  is  concerned,  about  which  you 
write,  do  not  be  surprised  at  my  not  marrying,  celebrated 
lover  as  I  am.  Rather  wonder  that  I  who  write  so 
much  about  marriage,  and  have  so  much  to  do  with  wo- 
men, am  not  already  a  woman  myself,  to  say  nothing  of 
taking  one  for  a  wife.  But  if  you  desire  me  for  an 
example,  behold  I  have  given  you  a  most  signal  one. 
For  I  have  had  three  wives  at  once,  and  loved  them  so 
ardently  that  I  have  lost  two  of  them,  who  have  taken 
other  husbands.  The  third  I  scarcely  hold  on  my  left 
arm,  and  am  perhaps  about  to  lose  her,  too.  Tardy  lover 
as  you  are,  you  dare  not  be  the  husband  even  of  one  wife. 
But  take  care  lest  it  happen  that  I,  with  a  mind  strongly 
set  against  marriage,  yet  anticipate  your  most  imminent 
espousals,  for  God  is  accustomed  to  do  what  one  least 
hopes.  Joking  aside,  I  say  this  that  I  may  induce  you 
to  do  what  you  have  in  mind. 

On  the  fourth  of  May,  in  a  letter  to  the  Mans f eld 
councilor  John  Ruhel,  concerning  the  riotous  conduct 
of  the  peasants,  he  remarked,  in  passing : 


MARRIAGE  279 

If  I  can  manage  it,  to  spite  the  devil,  I  will  yet  marry 
my  Kathe  before  I  die,  if  I  hear  that  the  peasants  go  on 
as  they  are  doing.  I  hope  they  will  not  take  from  me 
my  courage  and  my  joy. 

On  the  second  of  June  he  wrote  an  open  letter  to  the 
Archbishop  of  Mayence,  urging  him  to  marry  and 
turn  his  dominions  into  a  secular  principality.  The 
next  day  he  sent  a  copy  of  the  letter  to  Riihel  with  a 
note  in  which  he  said : 

If  his  Electoral  Grace  should  again  ask,  as  I  have 
heard  he  has,  why  I  also  do  not  take  a  wife,  when  I  am 
inciting  every  one  else  to  do  it,  tell  him  I  am  still  afraid 
I  am  not  clever  enough.  But  if  my  marriage  would  be 
an  inducement  to  his  Grace,  I  should  be  ready  to  set  him 
the  example,  for  I  have  already  had  it  in  mind,  before 
departing  this  life,  to  enter  the  married  state,  which  I 
regard  as  commanded  by  God. 

Ten  days  later,  on  Tuesday,  June  13,  he  and  Kath- 
arine were  married  in  the  cloister,  in  the  presence  only 
of  Jonas,  dean  of  the  castle  church;  Bugenhagen,  the 
city  pastor;  Apel,  a  colleague  of  the  law  faculty;  and 
the  town  councilor  Lucas  Cranach  and  his  wife.  In  a 
letter  written  the  next  day  to  Spalatin,  who  was  at  the 
time  in  Torgau,  Jonas  announced  the  event,  speaking 
of  the  mingled  emotions  with  which  he  had  witnessed 
it,  and  added :  "To-day  he  gave  a  small  breakfast.  A 
fitting  service  I  suppose  will  be  held  in  due  time,  when 
you  also  will  be  present."  Two  days  later  Bugenhagen 
wrote  Spalatin :  "Malicious  talk  has  brought  it  to  pass 
that  Dr.  Martin  has  unexpectedly  become  a  husband. 
After  a  few  days  we  have  thought  these  sacred  nup- 
tials should  be  celebrated  before  all  the  world  by  a 
public  ceremony,  to  which  you  also  without  doubt  will 
be  invited." 


280  MARTIN  LUTHER 

Accordingly,  a  fortnight  later,  on  the  twenty-sev- 
enth of  the  month,  a  service  was  held  in  the  city 
church,  and  a  wedding-feast  was  given  in  the  cloister, 
Luther's  father  and  mother,  with  a  large  circle  of 
friends,  being  present.  A  few  extracts  from  the  invi- 
tations sent  out  for  this  occasion  are  worth  quoting 
for  the  light  they  throw  upon  the  mood  he  was  in 
and  the  motives  prompting  him  to  marry. 

To  Ruhel  and  two  other  Mans f eld  councilors  he 
wrote : 

What  an  outcry,  dear  sirs,  I  have  caused  with  my  book 
against  the  peasants  !  All  is  forgotten  that  God  has  done 
for  the  world  through  me.  Lords,  priests,  peasants,  and 
everybody  else  are  now  against  me,  and  threaten  me  with 
death.  Well  and  good,  since  they  are  so  mad  and  foolish, 
I  have  determined  before  my  death  to  be  found  in  the 
state  ordained  of  God,  and  so  far  as  I  can  to  rid  myself 
entirely  of  my  former  popish  life,  and  make  them  still 
madder  and  more  foolish,  all  for  a  parting  gift.  For 
I  have  a  presentiment  that  God  will  one  day  give  me  His 
grace.  So,  at  my  dear  father's  desire,  I  have  now  mar- 
ried, and  have  done  it  in  haste  that  I  might  not  be  hin- 
dered by  these  talkers.  A  week  from  Tuesday  I  purpose 
giving  a  small  party,  which  I  want  you  as  good  friends 
to  know  about,  and  I  beg  you  will  add  your  blessing. 
Because  the  country  is  in  such  a  turmoil,  I  do  not  venture 
to  urge  you  to  be  present.  But  if  you  can  and  will  kindly 
come  of  your  own  accord  with  my  dear  father  and 
mother,  you  may  imagine  it  will  give  me  special  pleasure. 
I  shall  also  be  delighted  in  my  poverty  to  see  any  good 
friends  you  may  bring  with  you,  only  asking  you  to  let 
me  know  by  this  messenger. 

To  Spalatin : 

I  have  stopped  the  mouths  of  those  who  slandered  me 
and  Katharine  Bora.  If  I  can  manage  to  give  a  ban- 
quet as  a  witness  to  this  marriage  of  mine,  you  must 


MARRIAGE  281 

not  only  be  present,  but  also  lend  your  aid,  if  there 
should  be  need  of  provisions.  Meanwhile,  give  us  your 
benediction  and  your  good  wishes.  I  have  brought  my- 
self into  such  contempt  by  my  marriage  that  I  hope  the 
angels  are  laughing  and  all  the  demons  weeping. 

To  Amsdorf : 

The  report  is  true  that  I  married  Katharine  suddenly 
that  I  might  not  be  compelled  to  hear  the  noisy  talk  cus- 
tomary on  such  an  occasion.  I  hope  I  shall  still  live 
for  a  little  while,  and  this  last  service  I  did  not  wish  to 
refuse  my  father,  who  asked  it  of  me.  At  the  same  time 
I  wished  to  confirm  what  I  had  taught  by  my  deed,  for 
I  find  so  many  pusillanimous  despite  the  light  of  the 
gospel.  Thus  God  has  willed  and  done.  For  I  am  not 
passionately  in  love,  but  I  esteem  my  wife.  And  hence 
to  celebrate  my  marriage  I  shall  give  a  banquet  next 
Tuesday,  when  my  parents  will  be  present.  I  want  espe- 
cially to  have  you  here;  wherefore  I  now  invite  you, 
and  beg  you  will  not  stay  away  if  you  can  possibly  help  it. 

To  Marshal  von  Dolzigk : 

Doubtless  you  have  heard  the  news  of  my  venture  upon 
the  sea  of  matrimony.  Although  it  seems  strange  enough 
to  me,  and  I  can  hardly  believe  it  myself,  the  witnesses 
are  so  positive  that  I  am  obliged  in  honor  to  credit 
them.  I  have  therefore  undertaken,  with  my  father  and 
mother  and  other  good  friends,  to  set  a  stamp  upon  the 
affair  and  make  it  certain  by  a  banquet  to  be  given  next 
Tuesday.  If  convenient,  I  beg  you  will  kindly  support 
me  with  venison,  and  will  be  present  yourself  and  help 
seal  the  affair  with  joy,  and  do  whatever  else  the  circum- 
stances demand. 

To  Leonard  Koppe : 

Suddenly  and  unexpectedly  God  has  taken  me  captive 
in  the  bonds  of  holy  matrimony,  so  that  I  must  confirm 
it  with  a  banquet  on  Tuesday.  That  my  father  and 


282  MARTIN  LUTHER 

mother  and  all  my  good  friends  may  be  the  merrier,  my 
Lord  Katharine  and  I  beg  you  will  send  us  as  soon  as 
possible,  at  my  expense,  a  keg  of  the  best  Torgau  beer 
you  can  find.  I  will  pay  all  the  costs.  I  would  have  sent 
a  wagon,  but  I  did  not  know  whether  I  could  find  what 
I  wanted.  For  it  must  be  seasoned  and  cool,  that  it  may 
taste  well.  If  it  is  not  good,  I  have  determined  to  punish 
you  by  making  you  drink  it  all  yourself.  In  addition, 
I  hope  you  and  your  Audi  will  not  stay  away,  but  will 
appear  in  good  spirits.  Bring  with  you  Master  Gabriel 
and  his  wife,  if  you  can  do  it  without  expense  to  him, 
for  I  well  know  he  is  almost  as  poor  as  I  am. 

Luther's  marriage  raised  a  great  hue  and  cry.  The 
union  of  a  renegade  monk  with  an  escaped  nun,  violat- 
ing as  it  did  their  own  personal  vows,  and  ecclesiastical 
and  civil  law  as  well,  seemed  to  many  to  throw  a  sin- 
ister light  upon  the  whole  reform  movement.  Now, 
they  declared,  the  significance  of  the  Reforma- 
tion was  revealed  to  all  the  world,  and  it  was  clear 
what  Luther  had  had  in  mind  from  the  beginning. 
Satirical  attacks  appeared  in  great  numbers.  Slander- 
ous tales  were  spread  about  him  and  his  bride.  Even 
many  of  his  friends  were  thrown  into  consternation, 
and  feared  he  had  dealt  a  death-blow  to  the  cause. 
The  lawyer  Jerome  Schurf,  when  he  heard  the  rumor 
that  Luther  was  contemplating  marriage,  remarked: 
"If  this  monk  takes  a  wife,  the  whole  world  and  the 
devil  himself  will  laugh,  and  all  the  work  he  has  ac- 
complished will  come  to  naught."  Others,  though  wish- 
ing to  see  him  married,  regretted  he  had  chosen  Kathe 
rather  than  some  woman  of  wealth  and  position.  The 
time,  too,  seemed  to  almost  everybody  particularly 
inopportune.  His  prince  and  supporter,  the  Elector 
Frederick,  had  died  only  a  month  before,  and  all 
Saxony  was  still  mourning  him,  as  Luther  was,  too, 


MARRIAGE  283 

for  that  matter.  Moreover,  the  peasants'  war  was  not 
yet  ended,  and  the  whole  country  was  in  an  uproar. 
In  these  circumstances  many  not  unnaturally  felt  as 
though  the  great  reformer's  mind  and  heart  should 
have  been  full  of  other  things  than  marriage. 

But  Luther,  as  usual,  was  unmoved  by  the  criti- 
cisms of  his  friends  and  the  attacks  of  his  foes,  and 
never  regretted  what  he  had  done.  His  reasons  for 
the  step  were  many.  The  varying  accounts  he  gives 
of  them  are  doubtless  all  true  to  the  facts.  His  mo- 
tives were  complicated,  as  might  be  expected,  and  he 
could  not  himself  have  analyzed  them  fully.  He  had 
long  believed  and  taught  that  marriage  was  higher 
than  celibacy,  and  the  conviction  had  been  forcing  itself 
upon  him  that  he  ought  sometime  to  put  his  principle 
into  practice,  and  thus  bear  public  testimony  to  his 
own  attitude  and  give  his  followers  the  benefit  of  his 
example.  He  had  at  first  no  personal  inclination  to  the 
step.  IJe  had  had  very  little  to  do  with  women,  and 
was  so  absorbed  in  his  great  work  that  marriage  was 
the  last  thing  he  cared  for.  But  the  unhappy  experi- 
ences of  the  spring  of  1525  led  him  to  believe  the  end 
of  the  world,  or,  at  any  rate,  his  own  death,  immi- 
nent, and  he  began  to  think  it  time  to  marry,  if  he  was 
ever  to  do  so.  His  naturally  belligerent  temper,  ex- 
cited to  an  unusual  pitch  at  this  time,  also  urged  him 
on.  The  more  his  enemies  raged  against  him,  the 
more  he  loved  to  provoke  them.  Many  men  in  his 
position— Melanchthon,  for  instance— would  have 
avoided  all  unnecessary  grounds  of  offense;  but  Lu- 
ther was  of  a  different  type.  Though  he  would  do 
nothing  his  conscience  disapproved,  he  was  glad 
enough  when  his  deeds  offended  those  opposed  to  him. 
As  he  often  said,  he  never  felt  so  confident  he  was 
right  as  when  they  denounced  his  conduct. 


284  MARTIN  LUTHER 

It  is  not  surprising,  the  situation  being  what  it  was, 
that  Katharine's  suggestion  to  Amsdorf  should  find 
him  in  a  receptive  mood.  To  marry  a  nun  would  only 
make  his  testimony  the  stronger  and  the  hostility  of 
his  opponents  the  more  bitter.  As  if  all  this  were  not 
enough,  he  visited  his  parents  in  Mans  f eld  late  in 
April,  and  was  impressed  with  his  father's  eager  desire 
that  his  oldest  son,  now  finally  freed  from  his  mo- 
nastic bonds,  should  marry,  as  he  had  wished  him  to 
do  long  years  before.  To  please  him  thus  became  an 
added  motive  for  the  step.  And  it  may  be  he  felt  he 
owed  something  to  Katharine  herself,  whom  he  had  as- 
sisted to  escape  from  the  convent,  and  for  whom  he 
had  failed  as  yet  to  find  a  husband.  Perhaps  he  was 
thinking  of  this  when  he  once  remarked  that  he  mar- 
ried his  Kathe  out  of  pity. 

When  he  came  to  an  understanding  with  Kathe  we 
do  not  know.  He  probably  met  with  no  obstacles 
from  her  after  he  had  decided  to  press  his  suit,  and  his 
courtship,  it  may  fairly  be  presumed,  was  brief  and 
matter  of  fact  enough.  Neither  he  nor  Kathe  was 
violently  in  love.  Her  willingness  to  accept  either 
him  or  Amsdorf  shows  that  her  own  heart  was  not 
deeply  engaged,  and  Luther  himself  no  doubt  correctly 
described  his  feelings  toward  her  in  the  letter  to  Ams- 
dorf already  quoted.  But  a  protracted  engagement 
was  the  last  thing  he  desired.  Constantly  under  the 
eyes  of  the  whole  world  as  he  was,  with  enemies  and 
friends  observing  his  every  movement,  he  naturally 
wished  the  matter  concluded  as  speedily  as  possible. 
Years  later  he  remarked : 

It  is  very  dangerous  to  put  off  your  wedding,  for  Satan 
gladly  interferes  and  makes  great  trouble  through  evil 
talkers,  slanderers,  and  friends  of  both  parties.  If  I  had 
not  married  quickly  and  secretly,  and  taken  few  into  my 


From  the  painting  by  Lucas  Cranach 

LUTHER'S  WIFE,  KATHARINE  VON  BORA,  IN  1526 


MARRIAGE  285 

confidence,  every  one  would  have  done  what  he  could  to 
hinder  me ;  for  all  my  best  friends  cried,  "Not  this  one, 
but  another." 


Melanchthon,  who  was  kept  in  the  dark  until  the 
wedding  was  over,  was  almost  beside  himself  with 
annoyance.  On  the  sixteenth  of  June  he  wrote  the 
following  characteristic  letter  to  an  intimate  friend : 

On  the  thirteenth  of  June,  without  informing  any  of 
his  friends  of  his  intention,  Luther  unexpectedly  married 
Von  Bora.  The  customary  ceremony  took  place  in  the 
evening,  Bugenhagen  and  Lucas  the  painter  and  Apel 
alone  being  invited  to  the  feast.  You  will  perhaps  won- 
der that  in  this  unhappy  time,  while  good  and  right- 
minded  men  are  everywhere  sore  distressed,  he  does  not 
sorrow  with  them,  but  rather,  as  it  seems,  lives  voluptu- 
ously and  tarnishes  his  reputation,  when  Germany  spe- 
cially needs  his  wisdom  and  strength.  I  suppose  it  has 
happened  in  this  wise.  The  man  is  very  accommodating, 
and  the  nuns  fell  upon  him  and  plotted  against  him  with 
all  their  wiles.  Perhaps  his  much  association  with  them, 
though  he  is  honorable  and  high-minded,  softened  or 
even  inflamed  him.  In  this  way  he  seems  to  have  fallen 
into  this  untimely  alteration  of  his  mode  of  living.  But 
the  rumor  that  he  misbehaved  with  her  beforehand  is  an 
evident  lie.  Now  the  deed  is  done,  you  ought  not  to 
take  it  ill  or  find  fault  with  it.  I  suppose  marriage  is  a 
natural  necessity;  and  the  married  life,  though  humble, 
is  at  the  same  time  holy  and  more  pleasing  to  God  than 
celibacy.  Because  I  see  that  Luther  himself  is  in  some- 
what low  spirits  and  disturbed  over  the  change,  I  try 
as  earnestly  and  wisely  as  possible  to  encourage  him,  for 
he  has  as  yet  done  nothing  deserving  to  be  called  un- 
worthy or  inexcusable.  I  still  have  evidences  of  his 
piety,  and  so  cannot  condemn  him.  Besides,  I  should 
prefer  to  have  him  humble  rather  than  exalted  and  lifted 
up.  The  latter  is  dangerous  not  only  for  the  clergy,  but 


286  MARTIN  LUTHER 

for  all  other  men  as  well.  For  success  becomes  the  occa- 
sion of  evil  thoughts,  not  only,  as  the  rhetorician  says, 
to  the  foolish,  but  also  to  the  wise.  Then,  too,  I  hope 
his  marriage  will  make  him  more  sober,  and  lead  him  to 
give  up  the  buffoonery  we  have  often  blamed  him  for; 
since,  according  to  the  proverb,  another  life  will  bring 
another  mode  of  living.  I  write  thus  at  length  that  you 
may  not  be  troubled  overmuch  by  the  incredible  affair. 
For  I  know  you  care  for  Luther's  reputation  and  regret 
to  see  it  lowered.  I  exhort  you  to  take  the  matter  calmly, 
for  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  marriage  is  said  to  be  hon- 
orable, and  to  marry  is  probably  a  necessity.  God  has 
related  for  us  many  errors  of  the  old  saints,  wishing  us 
to  prove  His  word  and  not  to  depend  on  man's  reputation 
or  person,  but  only  on  His  word.  He  is  most  godless 
who  on  account  of  the  mistake  of  the  teacher  despises 
the  teaching. 

Luther  evidently  understood  his  friend,  and  had 
good  reason  for  not  taking  him  into  his  confidence. 
But  despite  Melanchthon's  impatience  at  the  event,  he 
was  soon  reconciled  to  the  new  order  of  things,  and 
became  a  stanch  friend  and  warm  admirer  of  Frau 
Kathe. 

Luther  himself,  though  not  at  first  deeply  in  love, 
grew  very  fond  of  his  wife,  and  cherished  her  warmly 
to  the  end  of  his  life.  We  have  only  a  few  of  the 
many  letters  he  wrote  her.  They  contain  no  particular 
endearments  beyond  the  greeting  "Meine  herzliebe 
Kathe"  in  one  case,  and  the  signature  "Dein  Liebchen" 
in  others.  But  they  show  clearly  the  good  terms  on 
which  husband  and  wife  lived  and  the  sympathy  and 
understanding  they  could  count  upon  from  each  other. 
In  the  summer  of  1526  he  wrote  a  friend:  "Kathe 
sends  greetings,  and  thanks  you  for  thinking  her 
worthy  of  such  a  kind  letter.  She  is  well,  by  the  grace 
of  God,  and  is  in  all  things  more  compliant,  obedient, 


MARRIAGE  287 

and  obliging  than  I  had  dared  to  hope, — thanks  be  to 
God! — so  that  I  would  not  exchange  my  poverty  for 
the  wealth  of  Croesus."  Some  years  later,  referring 
to  his  marriage,  he  remarked :  "It  has  turned  out  well, 
God  be  thanked!  For  I  have  a  pious  and  true  wife, 
on  whom  her  husband's  heart  can  rely."  To  Kathe 
herself  he  once  said :  "Kathe,  you  have  a  pious  hus- 
band who  loves  you.  You  are  an  empress."  And  on 
other  occasions  he  declared  he  held  her  dearer  than 
the  kingdom  of  France  and  the  dominions  of  Venice, 
and  even  loved  her  better  than  his  own  life.  To  be 
sure,  he  did  not  think  her  perfect.  He  recognized  her 
faults  as  well  as  his  own.  He  was  hot-tempered,  and 
she  had  a  quick  tongue,  and  often  hard  words  passed 
between  them.  "If  I  were  to  marry  again,"  he  once 
exclaimed,  "I  would  hew  me  an  obedient  wife  out  of 
stone,  for  I  doubt  whether  any  wives  are  obedient." 
But  despite  temporary  ebullitions,  he  and  Kathe  lived 
for  the  most  part  on  good  terms,  and  he  found  her 
congenial  notwithstanding  the  great  difference  in  their 
temperaments  and  interests. 

The  following  words  throw  a  flood  of  light  upon 
the  experiences  of  his  married  life: 

Ah,  dear  Lord,  marriage  is  not  an  affair  of  nature,  but 
a  gift  of  God.  It  is  the  sweetest  and  dearest,  yes,  purest 
life.  It  is  far  better  than  celibacy  when  it  turns  out 
well ;  but  when  it  turns  out  ill,  it  is  hell.  For  though  all 
women  as  a  rule  know  the  art  of  taking  a  man  captive 
with  tears,  lies,  and  persuasions,  and  are  able  to  distort 
everything  and  employ  fair  words,  nevertheless,  when 
truth  and  faith,  children  and  fruits  of  love  are  there, 
and  marriage  is  regarded  as  holy  and  divine,  then  it  is 
indeed  a  blessed  state.  How  eagerly  I  longed  for  my 
dear  ones  as  I  lay  deadly  ill  at  Schmalkalden !  I  thought 
I  should  never  again  see  wife  and  children  here.  How 


288  MARTIN  LUTHER 

I  mourned  over  the  separation !  I  am  convinced  that  the 
natural  longing  and  love  a  husband  has  for  his  wife 
and  parents  for  their  children  are  greatest  of  all  in  those 
who  are  dying.  Now  that  I  am  by  God's  grace  well 
again,  I  cherish  my  wife  and  children  so  much  the  more. 
No  one  is  so  spiritual  as  not  to  feel  such  inborn  love 
and  longing.  For  the  union  and  communion  of  man  and 
wife  are  a  great  thing. 

Luther's  ideas  about  women  were  not  modern.  She 
was  the  weaker  vessel,  he  maintained,  and  was  made  to 
be  subject  to  the  man.  Her  true  life  was  in  the  home. 
The  faithful,  obedient,  and  efficient  wife  fulfilled  the 
highest  ideal  of  womanhood.  The  eloquent  descrip- 
tion of  a  virtuous  woman  in  the  thirty-first  chapter  of 
Proverbs  he  regarded  as  valid  for  his  own  time  and 
all  times.  Of  the  so-called  emancipation  of  the  sex 
he  knew  nothing,  and  would  have  been  entirely  out  of 
sympathy  with  it,  had  he  heard  of  it.  But  he  per- 
formed an  incalculable  service  in  dignifying  married 
life  and  ascribing  to  it  a  sacredness  above  the  career 
of  monk  or  nun.  Instead  of  a  temptation  to  a  less 
perfect  way  of  living,  as  woman  was  too  commonly 
represented  by  the  religious  teachers  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  he  saw  in  her  one  ordained  of  God  to  be  the 
companion  and  helpmate  of  man,  and  in  their  union, 
not  in  their  separation,  he  found  the  ideal  life.  Re- 
ligion had  been  making  too  much  of  the  abnormal. 
Luther's  greatest  service  to  the  modern  world  lay  in 
his  recognition  of  the  normal  human  relationships  as 
the  true  sphere  for  the  development  of  the  highest 
religious,  as  of  the  highest  moral,  character. 


•      CHAPTER  XX 

HOME  LIFE 

I"  "OTHER'S  marriage  took  place  in  the  cloister  where 
JL/  he  had  lived  ever  since  he  came  to  Wittenberg. 
Here  he  and  Kathe  made  their  home  for  the  rest  of 
their  lives.  It  was  a  roomy  building  and  had  accom- 
modated at  one  time  as  many  as  forty  monks.  While 
Luther  was  at  the  Wartburg,  its  inmates,  under  the 
influence  of  his  teaching,  began  to  renounce  monas- 
ticism  and  to  return  to  the  world.  He  himself  had  no 
inclination  to  follow  their  example.  Writing  to  Link 
in  December,  1521,  he  said,  "Do  thou  meanwhile  con- 
tinue with  Jeremiah  in  the  ministry  of  Babylon,  for 
I  also  will  remain  in  this  habit  and  rite  unless  the 
world  become  another." 

The  exodus  went  on  steadily  until  in  1523  only 
Luther  himself  and  the  prior  Brisger  remained  in  resi- 
dence. Although  criticized  and  laughed  at  both  by 
enemies  and  friends  for  not  putting  his  own  principles 
into  practice,  and  turning  his  back  upon  the  monastic 
life,  he  continued  for  a  long  time  to  observe  the  con- 
vent rules  and  to  keep  up  the  required  devotions.  But 
gradually  one  after  another  of  the  traditional  cere- 
monies and  practices  fell  into  abeyance,  until  finally 
the  building  ceased  to  be  a  monastery  in  aught  but 
name.  At  the  same  time  the  traditional  monastic  hos- 
pitality was  still  maintained,  and  the  place  was  overrun 
with  escaped  monks  and  others  temporarily  in  need. 

In  1523  Luther  laid  off  the  monastic  dress  when  in 

19  289 


290  MARTIN  LUTHER 

the  convent,  but  continued  to  wear  it  in  public,  "to 
strengthen  the  weak  and  to  spite  the  pope,"  as  he 
remarked  in  a  letter  to  a  friend.  Finally,  in  October, 
1524,  he  discarded  it  altogether,  and  appeared  thence- 
forth in  the  ordinary  costume  of  a  university  professor. 

In  December  of  the  same  year,  when  he  and  Brisger 
proposed  to  vacate  the  monastery  and  let  it  be  devoted 
to  other  purposes,  the  elector  virtually  made  Luther 
a  present  of  the  building,  with  the  court  in  front  and 
the  garden  behind,  and  put  a  small  house  belonging  to 
it  at  the  disposal  of  Brisger.  The  gift  to  Luther  was 
legally  confirmed  seven  years  later  by  Frederick's  suc- 
cessor, the  Elector  John.  The  building  in  which  Lu- 
ther was  married,  and  where  he  continued  to  live  for 
the  rest  of  his  life,  was  thus  no  longer  a  cloister,  but 
his  own  private  dwelling. 

While  the  monastery  was  still  flourishing,  he  de- 
pended entirely  upon  it  for  his  support,  as  all  the  other 
monks  did.  But  with  the  exodus  of  most  of  its  in- 
mates, and  with  the  waning  respect  for  monasticism  in 
Wittenberg  and  its  neighborhood,  the  income  of  the 
monastery  from  begging  and  from  the  voluntary  gifts 
of  the  faithful  was  greatly  reduced,  and  it  was  found 
difficult  even  to  collect  the  rents  and  other  taxes  legally 
due,  as  Luther  frequently  complained  in  letters  to  the 
elector  and  Spalatin.  The  situation  was  finally  met  by 
giving  him  a  salary  for  his  university  work,  and  for 
the  rest  of  his  life  this  remained  his  only  regular  source 
of  income.  For  his  services  as  preacher  in  the  city 
church  he  received  nothing,  and  in  accordance  with  a 
not  uncommon  custom  of  the  day  he  refused  to  take 
money  for  his  books,  though  more  than  one  publisher 
made  a  fortune  out  of  them.  His  salary  at  first 
amounted  to  a  hundred  gulden,  intrinsically  equal  to 
fifty  dollars  of  our  money,  but  probably  the  equivalent 


HOME  LIFE  291 

in  purchasing  power  of  six  or  eight  hundred  dollars 
to-day.  When  he  married  it  was  doubled,  and  some 
years  later  another  hundred  was  added,  making,  with 
the  payments  in  kind  regularly  allowed  him  by  the 
elector,  an  assured  income  of  about  four  hundred 
gulden.  This  was  the  same  amount  received  by  Me- 
lanchthon,  and  was  unusually  large  for  a  university 
professor  of  the  day. 

In  addition,  gifts  of  all  sorts  poured  in  not  only 
from  the  elector  and  the  town  council  of  Wittenberg, 
but  from  admirers  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  Occa- 
sionally he  had  to  protest  that  he  was  given  too  much, 
as,  for  instance,  in  the  following  letter  to  the  Elector 
John,  written  in  1 529 : 

I  have  long  delayed  thanking  your  Electoral  Grace  for 
the  clothes  and  the  gown  you  sent  me.  I  respectfully 
beg*  your  Electoral  Grace  not  to  believe  those  who  say 
I  am  in  want.  I  have,  unfortunately,  especially  from 
your  Electoral  Grace,  more  than  I  can  conscientiously 
bear.  It  does  not  become  me  as  a  preacher  to  have  a 
superfluity,  nor  do  I  desire  it.  I  feel  your  Grace's  all  too 
mild  and  gracious  favor  so  much  that  I  am  beginning  to 
be  afraid.  For  I  should  not  like  to  be  in  this  life  among 
those  to  whom  Christ  says,  "Woe  unto  you  rich)  you 
have  your  reward."  Besides,  to  speak  humanly,  I  do 
not  want  to  be  burdensome  to  your  Electoral  Grace.  I 
know  your  Grace  has  to  give  to  so  many  that  nothing 
remains  over;  for  too  much  destroys  the  sack.  The 
brown  cloth  is  too  splendid,  but,  in  order  to  show  my 
gratitude  to  your  Electoral  Grace,  I  will  wear  the  black 
coat  in  your  honor,  although  it  is  too  costly  for  me ;  and 
if  it  were  not  your  Grace's  gift,  I  should  never  wear 
such  a  garment.  I  beg  your  Electoral  Grace  will  hence- 
forth wait  until  I  ask,  that  I  may  not  be  prevented  by 
your  Grace's  anticipation  of  my  wants  from  begging  for 
others  who  are  much  more  worthy  of  such  favor. 


292  MARTIN  LUTHER 

As  this  letter  suggests,  he  was  continually  asking 
gifts  for  others,  but  he  did  it  rarely  for  himself,  and 
as  a  rule  only  when  venison  or  wine  was  needed  for 
some  social  festivity.  Not  infrequently  he  sent  to  the 
town  vaults  for  wine  without  asking  anybody's  per- 
mission, but  the  council  apparently  took  it  in  good  part 
and  made  no  objection.  They  knew  the  city  owed  its 
growth  and  prosperity  largely  to  him,  and  frequently 
showed  their  appreciation  of  the  fact.  He  would  not 
consent  to  be  relieved  from  taxation,  but  scarcely  a 
year  passed  that  he  was  not  voted  substantial  gifts  of 
one  kind  and  another. 

Despite  it  all,  the  early  years  of  his  married  life 
were  full  of  money  troubles.  He  was  very  free  with 
what  he  had,  giving  away  his  last  gulden  without  hesi- 
tation, and  when  there  was  no  more  money,  tableware 
and  household  ornaments,  presented  to  Kathe  or  him- 
self by  admiring  friends',  would  often  go  to  relieve  the 
wants  of  the  needy.  He  frequently  complained  hu- 
morously of  his  own  soft-heartedness  and  gullibility, 
lamenting  that  anybody  could  take  him  in  with  a 
smooth  story. 

Kathe  kept  as  firm  a  hand  on  him  as  she  could,  and 
many  a  gulden  was  saved  which  would  otherwise  have 
found  its  way  into  the  pocket  of  some  friend  or 
stranger.  On  the  occasion  of  Agricola's  marriage,  he 
wrote  him  he  was  sending  as  a  wedding-present  a  vase 
received  sometime  before  from  another  friend;  but  in 
a  postscript  he  had  to  inform  him  that  Kathe  had  hid- 
den it  away,  so  it  could  not  be  found. 

Curiously  enough,  a  wedding-gift  of  twenty-five 
gulden  was  sent  him  by  Archbishop  Albert  of  Mayence. 
Luther  himself  declined  to  receive  it — it  was  his  boast 
that  he  never  took  presents  of  money — but  the  more 
thrifty  Kathe  accepted  it  without  his  knowledge,  and 


HOME  LIFE  293 

when  he  learned  of  it,  he  did  not  know  whether  to  be 
more  annoyed  or  amused. 

Now  and  then  he  got  into  trouble  through  indorsing 
notes  for  his  friends  when  he  had  no  money  of  his 
own  to  lend.  In  order  that  he  might  not  altogether 
impoverish  himself,  Lucas  Cranach  and  other  capital- 
ists of  the  town  finally  refused  to  honor  his  signature, 
and  this  way  of  helping  the  needy  was  thus  closed  to 
him. 

He  was  rather  deeply  in  debt  when  he  married,  and 
it  took  some  time  for  Kathe,  by  judicious  management, 
to  straighten  out  his  tangled  affairs.  In  1527  his 
own  imprudence,  he  wrote  Brisger,  made  it  neces- 
sary for  him  to  plunge  still  deeper  into  debt  and  to 
pawn  some  silver  goblets.  A  little  later  he  could  an- 
nounce that  all  his  debts  were  paid,  but  he  not  infre- 
quently had  to  lament  the  burden  of  new  ones.  "I 
justly  remain  in  the  catalogue  of  the  poor/'  he  once 
remarked,  "for  I  keep  too  large  an  establishment." 
Gradually,  despite  his  free-handedness,  a  certain  mea- 
sure of  worldly  prosperity  was  attained  through 
Kathe's  energy  and  economy,  and  they  were  able  to 
lake  considerable  improvements  in  the  Wittenberg 
louse,  and  to  buy  an  orchard,  a  hop-garden,  and  some 
other  pieces  of  land  in  the  neighborhood,  where  Kattoe 
raised  cattle  and  did  farming  on  a  small  scale.  Finally 
Luther  purchased  from  her  brother  a  farm  at  Zulsdorf , 
a  part  of  the  small  family  inheritance,  not  far  from 
her  birthplace.  In  the  management  of  this  she  took 
particular  delight.  One  of  her  husband's  letters  to  her 
opens  with  the  playful  greeting,  "To  the  rich  wife  at 
Zulsdorf,  Frau  Doctor  Luther,  in  the  body  at  home  at 
Wittenberg,  but  in  spirit  busy  at  Zulsdorf." 

Even  then  petty  economies  were  still  necessary,  and 
ready  money  was  often  entirely  lacking.  As  late  as 


294  MARTIN  LUTHER 

1540  he  had  to  go  for  weeks  without  his  nightly  glass 
of  beer  because  there  was  none  left  in  the  house  and 
no  money  to  buy  more  with.  In  1542,  when  he  made 
his  will,  he  carefully  reckoned  up  his  possessions,  and 
wrote  out  detailed  accounts  covering  a  number  of 
years.  We  still  have  some  of  the  original  pages,  deco- 
rated with  amusing  rhymes,  ruefully  lamenting  his 
extravagance  and  making  sport  of  his  lack  of  business 
capacity.  At  his  death  he  left  a  respectable  property, 
perhaps  amounting,  all  told,  to  eight  thousand  gulden ; 
but  most  of  it  was  unproductive,  and  Kathe  found  con- 
siderable difficulty  in  making  both  ends  meet.  She 
once  complained  that  he  might  have  been  a  rich  man 
had  he  wished ;  but  wealth  was  the  last  thing  he  cared 
for,  and  with  his  disposition  he  could  hardly  have 
compassed  it  had  he  tried. 

Kathe  was  a  vigorous  and  efficient  housewife.  The 
monastery  had  been  sadly  neglected  before  she  became 
its  mistress.  Luther  had  lived  very  carelessly,  often 
leaving  his  bed  unmade,  as  he  once  remarked,  for  a 
year  at  a  time,  and  tumbling  into  it  at  night  too  tired 
from  his  strenuous  labors  to  notice  the  difference.  His 
marriage  brought  order  into  the  place,  and  trans- 
formed the  bare  and  cheerless  monastery  into  a  real 
home.  In  1536,  after  a  visit  to  Wittenberg,  Wolfgang 
Capito  of  Strasburg  wrote  him :  "My  greetings  to 
your  wife,  Lady  Katharine,  best  of  women !  When  I 
have  returned  home  I  will  send  her  something  to  re- 
member me  by.  I  love  her  with  all  my  heart.  She  was 
born  to  look  after  your  health,  that  you  may  the  longer 
serve  the  church  which  has  come  into  existence  through 
you." 

Luther's  own  personal  habits  changed  little.  He 
remained  negligent  about  his  dress,  as  he  had  always 
been,  and  his  study  continued  a  wilderness  of  disorder. 


HOME  LIFE  295 

Desks,  tables,  chairs,  and  every  available  spot  were 
covered  with  books,  letters,  and  manuscripts,  and  he 
often  lost  things  altogether  in  the  confusion  of  the 
place.  Even  before  his  marriage  he  kept  a  dog,  which 
frequently  played  havoc  with  his  papers.  He  was  also 
careless  about  his  food.  Before  Kathe  came  upon  the 
scene  he  ate  very  irregularly,  often  forgetting  his 
meals  altogether.  His  bodily  needs,  indeed,  meant 
little  to  him.  As  he  once  wrote  Melanchthon,  when 
he  could  not  get  meat  and  wine,  he  contented  himself 
with  bread  and  water.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was 
often  as  imprudent  in  his  eating  as  in  his  fasting. 
Kathe  set  a  bountiful  table,  and  whatever  the  condition 
of  his  health,  and  despite  her  protests,  he  was  apt  to 
eat  anything  that  seized  his  fancy,  bad  as  it  might  be 
for  him.  In  1539  he  remarked:  "I  don't  bother  about 
the  doctors.  They  give  me  a  year  to  live,  and  I  will 
not  make  my  life  miserable,  but  will  eat  and  drink, 
in  God's  name,  whatever  tastes  good."  His  irregu- 
lar habits  and  strenuous  labors  combined  with  the 
ascetic  practices  of  his  early  years  to  undermine  his 
health.  He  was  a  sufferer  from  severe  kidney  and 
liver  trouble  during  most  of  his  life,  and  had  to  endure 
a  great  deal  from  headaches,  which  often  completely 
incapacitated  him  for  work. 

A  masterful  person  Kathe  was,  with  a  mind  and 
will  of  her  own.  The  cloister  she  made  her  particular 
domain,  and  ruled  it  with  a  strong  hand.  Strength  and 
energy,  indeed,  were  her  prominent  characteristics. 
Among  her  neighbors  she  bore  the  reputation  of  being 
a  capable  but  somewhat  over-thrifty  housewife,  and 
while  generally  respected,  she  was  not  generally  liked. 
To  many  she  seemed  proud  and  domineering.  As  the 
wife  of  the  great  reformer,  it  was  not  unnatural  she 
should  hold  her  head  high  and  expect  her  will  to  count 


296  MARTIN  LUTHER 

in  the  little  university  city.  Luther  once  compared  her 
to  Moses  and  himself  to  Aaron,  and  he  often  spoke  of 
her  jestingly  as  "My  Lord  Kathe."  In  October,  1535, 
he  wrote  his  friend  Jonas :  "My  Lord  Kathe  greets 
you.  She  rides  about,  cultivates  the  fields,  raises  and 
buys  cattle,  brews  beer,  and  the  like.  At  the  same  time 
she  has  begun  to  read  the  Bible,  and  I  have  promised 
her  fifty  florins  if  she  finishes  before  Easter.  She  is 
very -earnest  about  it,  and  has  already  reached  the  fifth 
book  of  Moses."  Her  reason  for  taking  up  the  read- 
ing of  the  Bible  at  this  particular  time,  it  may  be  re- 
marked, was  the  recent  appearance  of  Luther's  German 
version  in  its  first  complete  edition. 

With  all  his  playful  raillery,  her  husband  valued  her 
highly  for  just  those  practical  qualities  he  lacked  him- 
self, and  he  was  very  glad  to  turn  the  management  of 
family  affairs  wholly  over  to  her.  Though  we  hear  of 
her  chiefly  as  a  housewife,  she  was  not  simply  that. 
While  her  tastes  were  not  intellectual  or  literary,  she 
had  a  fair  education,  and  knew  enough  Latin  to  fol- 
low and  bear  her  share  in  the  table  conversation,  com- 
monly carried  on  in  a  curious  mixture  of  German  and 
Latin  intelligible  only  to  one  acquainted  with  both.  A 
pious  woman  she  was,  too,  and  deeply  interested  in 
Luther's  great  reforming  work.  As  his  references  to 
theological  and  ecclesiastical  affairs  in  some  of  his  let- 
ters to  her  show,  he  took  her  into  his  confidence  and 
talked  matters  over  freely  with  her.  Evidently  she 
understood  and  appreciated  what  was  going  on,  and  at 
times  made  her  influence  felt  even  in  important  affairs, 
as  when  she  induced  him,  so  he  says,  against  his  will, 
to  engage  in  open  controversy  with  the  great  Eras- 
mus. 

Their  home  was  the  center  of  a  very  active  social 
life.  Not  only  his  colleagues  and  neighbors  were  fre- 


HOME  LIFE  297 

quently  with  them,  but  guests  from  abroad  were  nu- 
merous ;  for  Wittenberg  was  more  and  more  the  Mecca 
of  Christians  from  all  parts  of  Europe,  and  Luther's 
hospitality  to  all  comers  was  generous  and  abundant. 

Among  the  regular  members  of  his  large  household, 
besides  a  number  of  nephews  and  nieces  and  other  poor 
relatives,  were  many  university  students.  Following  a 
custom  common  among  the  Wittenberg  professors, 
Kathe  began  immediately  after  her  marriage  to  take 
student  boarders,  and  kept  up  the  practice  to  the  end 
of  her  life.  It  is  to  some  of  them  we  owe  the  interest- 
ing records  of  Luther's  table-talk,  through  which  we 
catch  many  fascinating  glimpses  of  his  home  life.  Be- 
ginning in  a  small  way,  early  in  the  thirties,  certain  of 
them  finally  got  into  the  habit  of  writing  down,  under 
his  very  eyes  and  while  he  was  talking,  the  substance 
of  his  conversation.  At  times  his  dining-room  must 
have  presented  the  aspect  of  a  class-room,  with  the 
auditors  diligently  transcribing  the  lecturer's  words  of 
wisdom.  It  might  seem  as  if  the  effect  would  have 
been  to  take  all  spontaneity  and  naturalness  out  of  his 
talk,  but  this  was  by  no  means  the  case.  Even  the  most 
carefully  edited  collections  are  full  of  informal  and 
unstudied  expressions  of  opinion  on  every  conceivable 
subject,  grave  and  gay,  serious  and  trivial,  while  some 
of  the  original  records  more  recently  recovered  show 
that  he  talked  as  freely  and  unconsciously  as  if  no 
faithful  scribes  were  waiting  upon  his  words.  Often 
the  talk,  as  we  have  it,  sounds  commonplace  enough, 
but  again  it  flashes  with  brilliancy  and  reveals  rare 
wisdom  and  insight. 

The  records  of  course  have  to  be  used  with  caution, 
for  we  cannot  always  be  sure  he  was  rightly  under- 
stood or  correctly  reported,  but  frequently  we  run  upon 
characteristic  sayings  which  could  have  come  from  no 


298  MARTIN  LUTHER 

one  else,  and  which  enrich  and  add  to  the  vividness  of 
our  portrait  of  the  man. 

His  conversation  was  apt  to  be  much  freer  than 
would  be  at  all  admissible  to-day.  In  that  respect  he 
was  a  child  of  his  age,  for  high  and  low  alike  were  less 
careful  in  speech  then  than  now.  To  be  sure,  he  was 
often  coarser  than  even  the  loose  standards  of  the  day 
approved.  His  humor  was  broad  rather  than  subtle 
and  delicate,  and  to  men  of  the  type  of  Erasmus  and 
Melanchthon  it  often  seemed  only  buffoonery.  To  the 
end  of  his  life  he  retained  many  of  the  characteristics 
of  a  peasant,  and  he  wielded  in  talk,  as  in  controversy, 
an  ax  rather  than  a  Damascus  blade.  But  with  all  his 
lack  of  refinement,  he  was  essentially  a  wholesome  and 
clean-minded  man.  Despite  the  many  unquotable 
things  he  said  and  wrote  to  illustrate  a  point  or  enforce 
an  argument  or  give  sting  to  his  polemic,  there  is  sur- 
prisingly little  vulgarity  or  obscenity  for  its  own  sake 
either  in  his  table-talk  or  in  his  writings. 

Pure  he  was  in  life,  too.  Attacks  of  course  were 
made  upon  his  moral  character  by  his  enemies,  and  all 
sorts  of  unsavory  stones  were  told  about  him.  But 
for  none  of  them  can  a  shred  of  evidence  be  found, 
though  he  lived  for  twenty-five  years  in  a  blaze  of  pub- 
licity, observed  of  all  the  world  and  spied  upon  by 
countless  critics.  The  most  his  bitter  enemies,  the  radi- 
cals, who  lived  near  by  and  knew  him  well,  could  urge 
against  him  when  they  tried  to  blacken  his  character 
was  his  liking  for  society,  his  fondness  for  playing  the 
lute,  his  luxurious  living,  and,  strange  to  say,  his  fine 
dressing,  for  on  state  occasions,  it  seems,  he  was  fond 
of  wearing  starched  cuffs  and  a  gold  chain. 

The  radicals  were  the  Puritans  of  the  day,  and  their 
standards  were  very  rigorous.  Luther  himself  was 
certainly  not  a  Puritan.  He  believed  in  innocent  plea- 


HOME  LIFE  299 

sure  of  all  sorts,  and  had  no  desire  to  make  of  Witten- 
berg what  Calvin  later  made  of  Geneva.  He  encour- 
aged gymnastic  sports  because  they  strengthened  the 
body  and  decreased  over-drinking  and  similar  vices. 
He  played  at  bowls  himself,  and  was  something  of  an 
expert  at  chess  according  to  his  friend  Mathesius.  In 
1534,  in  accepting  an  invitation  to  visit  Prince  Joachim 
of  Anhalt  with  some  other  friends,  he  wrote:  "Your 
Grace  must  look  out  for  Master  Francis  at  chess.  He 
thinks  he  can  play  very  well,  but  I  will  wager  a  beauti- 
ful rose  he  cannot  play  as  well  as  he  pretends.  He 
knows  how  to  assign  their  places  to  the  knights,  to 
seize  the  castles,  and  to  hoodwink  the  peasants 
(pawns),  but  the  lady  is  his  master  in  the  game,  per- 
haps elsewhere  as  well."  He  particularly  liked  to  see 
young  people  enjoy  themselves,  and  heartily  approved 
of  dancing  and  private  theatricals  for  them.  Music  he 
was  very  fond  of  and  passed  many  a  happy  evening 
singing  and  playing  with  his  friends.  He  was  also  not 
indifferent  to  pictures,  and  had  a  Madonna  in  his 
chamber,  to  the  great  scandal  of  the  Protestant  rigor- 
ists. 

His  chief  relaxation  he  always  found  in  social  inter- 
course. Particularly  when  depressed,  as  he  often  was, 
he  sought  comfort  and  relief  in  the  society  of  his 
friends,  and  was  continually  prescribing  the  same 
remedy  for  like  depression  in  others.  He  once  re- 
marked :  "When  Eve  went  walking  by  herself  in  Para- 
dise the  devil  tempted  and  led  her  astray";  and  on 
another  occasion  he  declared  he  would  rather  asso- 
ciate with  his  swineherd  and  the  swine  than  stay 
alone.  Light  conversation,  jesting,  and  story-telling 
he  thought  especially  good  for  low  spirits,  and  often 
indulged  in  them,  he  said,  just  on  that  account.  He 
also  advised  hearty  eating  and  drinking  for  many  a 


300  MARTIN  LUTHER 

one,  though  not  for  everybody.  To  one  of  his  young 
table  companions,  Jerome  Weller,  who  was  subject  to 
frequent  attacks  of  the  blues,  he  wrote :  "Whenever  the 
devil  vexes  you  with  such  thoughts  immediately  seek 
the  society  of  men,  or  drink  more  freely,  or  joke,  or 
talk  nonsense,  or  do  some  other  hilarious  thing.  Why 
do  you  think  I  drink  so  much,  converse  with  such  free- 
dom, and  eat  so  often,  if  not  to  make  sport  of  the  devil 
and  vex  him  when  he  is  trying  to  vex  and  make  sport 
of  me?" 

When  in  the  mood  he  could  be  a  fascinating  com- 
rade, and  many  were  the  merry  hours  spent  at  table 
with  colleagues  and  friends.  Speaking  once  of  his 
faith  in  the  gospel  and  of  his  confidence  in  his  divine 
call,  he  added :  "But  when  I  consider  my  own  weak- 
ness, how  I  eat  and  drink,  and  at  times  am  merry  and 
a  good  table  companion,  I  begin  to  be  in  doubt."  On 
another  occasion,  when  entertaining  some  of  his  col- 
leagues at  dinner,  he  called  the  company's  attention 
to  a  large  wine-glass  encircled  with  three  rings.  The 
first,  he  said,  represented  the  Ten  Commandments,  the 
second  the  Creed,  and  the  third  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
Having  emptied  it  at  a  single  draft,  he  filled  it  again 
and  passed  it  to  Agricola,  something  of  a  fanatic  on 
the  subject  of  faith,  who  was  able  to  get  no  further 
than  the  Ten  Commandments,  to  Luther's  great 
amusement. 

Beer  and  wine  he  partook  of  freely,  as  was  the  cus- 
tom of  his  countrymen,  and  his  table  conversation 
may  often  have  been  less  restrained  in  consequence; 
but  his  enemies  exaggerated  when  they  accused  him  of 
being  a  hard  drinker.  While  he  never  criticized  the 
moderate  use  of  wine  and  beer,  he  always  severely 
denounced  over-indulgence  in  them,  not  sparing  even 
his  own  elector,  John  Frederick,  who,  with  all  his 


Painted  by  Lucas  Cranach 


BUGENHAGEX,    I 537 


HOME  LIFE  301 

piety,  was  prone  to  frequent  intoxication.  According 
to  Melanchthon,  Luther  was  always  abstemious  both 
in  food  and  drink,  and  often,  when  absorbed  in  work, 
fasted  completely  for  days  at  a  time.  An  immoderate 
drinker,  at  any  rate,  he  certainly  was  not.  Had  he 
been,  he  could  not  possibly  have  kept  up  year  after 
year,  day  in  and  day  out,  to  the  very  end  of  his  life, 
his  tremendous  and  unremitting  labors.  Almost  super- 
human they  seem,  as  we  look  back  upon  them.  Only 
a  man  of  extraordinary  self-control  and  constant  con- 
centration of  purpose  could  have  accomplished  what 
he  did. 

Despite  his  public  labors,  which  continued  unabated, 
Luther  showed  himself  no  little  of  a  family  man.  He 
did  considerable  gardening,  and  took  a  great  interest 
in  getting  rare  plants  from  distant  parts  of  the  country. 
Not  long  after  his  marriage  he  wrote  Spalatin :  "I  have 
planted  a  garden  and  dug  a  well,  and  both  have  turned 
out  successfully.  Come,  and  you  shall  be  crowned 
with  lilies  and  roses."  He  provided  himself  with  a 
carpenter's  bench  and  a  turning-lathe,  securing  through 
his  friend  Link  in  Nuremberg  the  best  tools  to  be  had, 
and  he  proved  not  unskilful  in  making  useful  articles 
for  the  house.  He  continued  to  mend  his  own  clothes, 
not,  as  he  declared,  for  the  sake  of  economy,  but  be- 
cause the  tailors  were  so  poor.  On  one  occasion,  Kathe 
had  to  complain,  he  cut  up  one  of  the  children's  gar- 
ments to  patch  his  own  trousers  with. 

Instead  of  working  night  and  day,  as  before  his  mar- 
riage, he  now  permitted  himself  more  leisure  of  an 
evening,  and  confined  his  study  and  writing  chiefly  to 
the  daytime.  It  was  his  custom,  so  he  remarked  in 
*537>  to  g°  to  bed  regularly  at  nine  o'clock,  an  ex- 
traordinary contrast  to  the  late  hours  kept  in  earlier 
years.  When  the  children  came,  he  loved  to  spend 


302  MARTIN  LUTHER 

such  time  as  he  could  spare  with  them,  and  they  were 
devotedly  attached  to  him.  From  Torgau  he  once 
wrote  to  Kathe:  "Although  it  is  market  season  here, 
I  can  find  nothing  in  this  city  for  the  children.  Have 
something  on  hand  if  I  should  fail  to  bring  anything 
home  for  them." 

In  1530,  while  at  Coburg  during  the  meeting  of  the 
Diet  of  Augsburg,  he  wrote  his  four-year-old  son  the 
following  charming  letter : 

To  my  dear  son,  Hans  Luther:  Grace  and  peace  in 
Christ,  my  darling  little  son.  I  am  very  glad  to  hear 
that  you  are  studying  well  and  praying  diligently.  Go 
on  doing  so,  my  little  son,  and  when  I  come  home  I  will 
bring  you  a  beautiful  present. 

I  know  a  lovely,  pretty  garden,  where  there  are  many 
children.  They  wear  golden  coats,  and  pick  up  fine 
apples,  pears,  cherries,  and  plums  under  the  trees.  They 
sing  and  jump  and  are  very  merry.  They  also  have 
beautiful  little  horses  with  bridles  of  gold  and  saddles 
of  silver.  I  asked  the  man  who  owned  the  garden  who 
the  children  were.  He  answered,  "These  are  the  chil- 
dren who  gladly  pray  and  study  and  are  good."  Then 
I  said,  "Dear  man,  I  also  have  a  son  named  Hans 
Luther.  Would  n't  he  like  to  come  into  the  garden  and 
eat  such  beautiful  apples  and  pears  and  ride  such  fine 
horses  and  play  with  these  children!"  Then  the  man 
said,  "If  he  prays  and  studies  gladly,  and  is  good,  he 
too  shall  come  into  the  garden,  and  Lippus  and  Jost  with 
him.  And  when  they  are  all  here  they  shall  have  whis- 
tles and  drums  and  lutes,  and  all  sorts  of  things  to  make 
music  with,  and  they  shall  dance  and  shoot  with  little 
crossbows."  And  he  showed  me  a  beautiful  meadow 
in  the  garden  fixed  for  dancing.  Gold  whistles  were 
hung  there,  and  drums  and  silver  crossbows.  But  it  was 
still  early  and  the  children  had  not  yet  eaten,  so  I 
could  n't  wait  for  the  dance,  and  I  said  to  the  man: 
"Dear  sir,  I  will  go  as  fast  as  I  can  and  write  it  all  to 


HOME  LIFE  303 

my  dear  son  Hans,  that  he  may  study  and  pray  well  and 
be  good  and  so  come  into  this  garden.  But  he  has  an 
Aunt  Lena  whom  he  will  have  to  bring  with  him."  Then 
the  man  said,  "Very  well,  go  and  write  it  to  him." 

Therefore,  dear  little  son  Hans,  study  and  pray 
bravely,  and  tell  Lippus  and  Jost  to  do  so  too,  and  you 
shall  all  come  into  the  garden  with  each  other.  The  dear 
God  take  care  of  you.  Greet  Aunty  Lena  and  give  her 
a  kiss  for  me. 

Your  loving  father, 

MARTIN  LUTHER. 

April  22,  1530. 

His  marriage  was  blessed  with  six  children,  Hans, 
who  was  named  after  Luther's  father;  Elizabeth; 
Magdalen,  after  Kathe's  aunt,  who  made  her  home 
with  her  niece;  Martin;  Paul,  named  for  Luther's 
favorite  apostle ;  and  Margaret,  for  his  mother.  Hans, 
Martin,  Paul,  and  Margaret  survived  their  parents. 
In  spite  of  his  father's  dislike  for  the  legal  profession 
and  oft-expressed  hope  that  none  of  his  sons  would 
enter  it,  Hans  studied  law  and  spent  his  life  in  a  minor 
government  position.  Paul,  the  ablest  of  the  three 
boys,  studied  medicine  and  had  a  successful  and  hon- 
orable career  as  court  physician  to  the  Electors  of 
Saxony.  Only  Martin  took  up  theology,  and  his 
health  was  so  poor  that  he  was  unable  to  engage  in 
active  work  and  died  at  thirty- four.  The  reformer's 
hope  of  leaving  a  son  who  would  be  a  great  theologian 
and  continue  the  campaign  against  the  pope  was  thus 
doomed  to  disappointment.  His  daughter  Margaret 
married  a  Wittenberg  student  of  noble  birth,  and  both 
she  and  her  brother  Paul  have  descendants  still  living. 

Luther's  oldest  daughter,  Elizabeth,  died  in  infancy. 
Immediately  afterward,  in  a  letter  to  a  friend,  he 
wrote :  "My  little  Elizabeth,  my  wee  daughter,  is  dead. 


304  MARTIN  LUTHER 

It  is  wonderful  how  sorrowful  she  has  left  me.  My 
soul  is  almost  like  a  woman's,  so  moved  am  I  with 
misery.  I  could  never  have  believed  that  the  hearts  of 
parents  are  so  tender  toward  their  children.  Pray  the 
Lord  for  me !" 

The  great  grief  of  his  life  was  the  death,  in  1542,  of 
his  favorite  child,  Magdalen,  when  thirteen  years  of 
age.  She  was  a  sweet  and  gentle  character,  and  her 
parents'  hearts  were  wrapped  up  in  her.  As  she  lay 
dying,  a  friend  tells  us,  Luther  threw  himself  on  the 
floor  beside  her  bed,  weeping  bitterly  and  praying  for 
her  restoration ;  but  she  passed  away  in  his  arms,  while 
Kathe  stood  apart,  overcome  with  emotion.  For  all  his 
Christian  faith  and  the  consolations  of  the  gospel  he 
had  brought  to  many  others  in  similar  affliction,  he 
realized  now,  as  he  never  had  before,  the  clamorous 
insistence  of  human  grief.  "It  is  strange,"  he  ex- 
claimed, "to  know  she  is  certainly  well  and  at  peace, 
and  yet  to  be  so  sorrowful."  Her  parents  never  ceased 
mourning  her.  Not  long  before  his  death,  Luther 
wrote  a  friend:  "It  is  extraordinary  how  the  loss  of 
my  Magdalen  continues  to  oppress  me.  I  cannot  for- 
get her." 

Despite  these  afflictions,  Luther's  married  life,  tak- 
ing it  as  a  whole,  was  genuinely  happy.  Few  of  the 
world's  greatest  men  have  been  privileged  to  enjoy  for 
many  years  the  solace  and  comfort  of  home  and  family 
as  he  did.  It  seems  at  first  almost  incongruous.  The 
modern  world's  foremost  prophet  living  the  life  of  a 
family  man  and  interesting  himself  in  the  petty  affairs 
of  a  German  professor's  home !  But  it  helped  to  keep 
him  human,  and  it  should  help  us  to  realize  his  human- 
ness. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

THE  FORMATION  OF  A  NEW  CHURCH 

IN  renouncing  allegiance  to  the  pope  and  following 
the  lead  of  Luther,  the  church  in  Saxony  and  else- 
where became  in  reality  a  new  institution,  going  its 
own  way  and  living  its  own  life.  But  from  Luther's 
point  of  view  it  was  simply  the  old  church  with  certain 
unessential  and  disturbing  accessories  stripped  off. 
This  fact  explains-the  leisurely  and  almost  casual  way 
in  which  the  new  movement  was  organized  and  new 
churches  were  formed. 

When  Luther  was  condemned  as  a  heretic,  his  ac- 
tivities both  as  professor  and  preacher  should  have 
ceased  at  once.  But  the  papal  bull  counted  for  so 
little  in  Wittenberg  that  he  could  go  on  teaching  and 
preaching  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  The  imperial 
ban  was  taken  more  seriously  by  the  elector,  who  in- 
duced Luther  to  go  into  retirement  for  a  season ;  but  in 
the  spring  of  1522,  despite  Frederick's  protest,  the 
reformer  was  back  again  in  Wittenberg,  carrying  on 
his  work  in  university  and  church  just  as  before.  The 
elector  might  have  closed  the  doors  of  the  university 
to  him,  and  the  town  council  might  have  refused  to  let 
him  preach  in  the  city  church,  but  they  preferred,  in 
tacit  defiance  of  pope  and  emperor,  to  keep  their  hands 
off,  and  allow  him  to  go  on  unmolested. 

The  circumstances  being  what  they  were,  the  estab- 
20  305 


306  MARTIN  LUTHER 

lishment  of  a  new  church  seemed  quite  unnecessary. 
From  the  beginning  it  was  reformation,  not  revolution, 
Luther  wished — the  old  church  brought  into  conform- 
ity with  the  word  of  God,  not  a  new  church  indepen- 
dent of  the  old.  At  first  he  hoped  that  the  ecclesiastical 
rulers,  both  pope  and  .bishops,  would  cooperate  with 
him  in  accomplishing  the  needed  reforms.  When  they 
refused,  and  he  found  their  authority  blocking  the 
way,  he  became  convinced  that  they  were  not  a  neces- 
sary part  of  the  church.  .  Even  without  them  it  re- 
mained intact.  As  he  continued  to  preach  and 
administer  the  sacraments  in  Wittenberg,  he  was  still, 
he  believed,  within  the  church  of  his  fathers,  and  to 
effect  changes  in  its  doctrine,  discipline,  and  worship 
in  defiance  of  pope  and  bishops  was  not  to  found  a 
new  church,  but  only  to  purify  the  old.  No  declaration 
of  independence,  no  explicit  renunciation  of  existing 
authorities,  no  formal  constitution  was  needed,  but 
simply  quiet  and  gradual  alterations  as  the  new  prin- 
ciples seemed  to  demand  them  and  the  new  situation  to 
justify  them. 

Had  Luther  been  forced  out  of  the  existing  organi- 
zation, he  might  have  felt  compelled  to  gather  his  fol- 
lowers into  a  new  society,  and  they  might  have  formed 
an  independent  sect,  as  some  of  the  Protestants  later  did 
in  England  and  elsewhere.  But  the  necessity  was  not 
upon  him,  for,  in  spite  of  papal  bull  and  imperial  ban, 
he  was  left  in  reality  unmolested  in  the  church  he  was 
in  and  was  even  allowed  to  reform  it  as  he  saw  fit. 
To  be  sure,  the  ecclesiastical  rulers  withheld  their 
consent;  but  without  the  elector's  support  they  were 
powerless,  and  their  fulminations  went  for  naught. 
Though  the  reformer  was  in  active  rebellion  against 
them,  and  his  conduct  in  open  violation  of  law,  the 
Saxon  government  was  on  his  side.  His  rebellion 


THE  FORMATION  OF  A  NEW  CHURCH   307 

was  therefore  crowned  with  success,  and  the  local 
ecclesiastical  institution,  with  all  its  belongings,  was 
wrenched  from  the  pope's  control. 

After  1522  much  of  Luther's  time  was  spent  in  the 
laborious  task  of  organizing  the  new  movement  in 
Saxony  and  elsewhere.  The  work  was  often  of  a 
prosaic  character.  The  dramatic  interest  attaching  to 
the  earlier  years  was  largely  lacking,  and  the  heroism 
of  the  warrior  and  the  inspiration  of  the  prophet  had 
little  opportunity  to  show  themselves.  And  yet  the 
achievements  of  this  period  in  the  reformer's  life  must 
not  be  thought  lightly  of. 

It  is  commonly  said  that  he  was  not  a  constructive 
genius,  and  his  prowess  as  a  fighter  is  praised  at  the 
expense  of  his  skill  as  a  builder.  But  to  belittle  the 
latter  is  to  mistake  appearance  for  reality.  Indifferent  * 
he  was  to  the  details  of  organization  and  willing  to  let 
many  things  take  their  course,  but  he  had  the  one  great 
gift,  rare  enough  then  as  always,  of  distinguishing  the 
important  from  the  unimportant  and  knowing  what  to 
insist  upon  despite  all  opposition  and  criticism.  Often 
his  clearsightedness  and  iron  firmness  alone  prevented 
shipwreck. 

In  his  great  days  of  conflict  with  the  papacy  he 
seemed  a  radical  theorist,  eager  to  carry  his  principles 
to  their  logical  conclusions  and  to  force  their  universal 
application,  whatever  the  consequences  might  be.  But 
when  it  came  to  the  organization  of  the  new  movement 
he  frequently  showed  an  extraordinary  amount  of 
practical  sense  and  a  surprising  willingness  to  accept 
what  was  attainable  and  to  postpone,  or  waive  alto- 
gether, cherished  measures  that  proved  impracticable. 
At  the  same  time  he  stood  like  a  rock  for  certain  things 
he  deemed  indispensable,  preferring,  as  he  frequently 
said,  to  lose  all  he  had  gained  and  start  over  again 


308  MARTIN  LUTHER 

from  the  beginning  rather  than  to  build  on  insecure 
foundations. 

We  may  disagree  with  many  of  the  positions  he 
took;  we  may  count  unimportant  in  our  day  and 
generation  not  a  few  of  the  matters  he  thought  essen- 
tial, and  may  deplore  his  failure  to  put  some  of  his 
most  advanced  principles  into  more  consistent  practice ; 
but,  the  situation  being  what  it  was,  it  would  be  diffi- 
cult to  conceive  how  any  other  course  than  that  he 
followed  could  have  conserved  the  new  movement  and 
enabled  it  to  maintain  itself  permanently  despite  foes 
without  and  dissensions  within. 

For  some  time  no  new  ecclesiastical  government  was 
formally  substituted  for  the  old.  In  the  city  church 
of  Wittenberg  such  changes  as  were  made  under 
Luther's  direction  had  the  approval  of  the  town  coun- 
cil, and  no  other  permission  was  asked.  The  Bishop  of 
Brandenburg,  within  whose  jurisdiction  Wittenberg 
lay,  was  entirely  ignored,  but  he  was  not  unfriendly  to 
Luther  and  made  no  serious  protest.  In  many  other 
towns  similar  independence  was  shown,  the  municipal 
authorities  taking  things  into  their  own  hands  and 
reforming  as  they  saw  fit.  Sometimes  the  elector  also 
lent  his  aid,  as,  for  instance,  in  1522,  when,  at  Luther's 
solicitation,  he  supported  the  town  council  of  Alten- 
burg  in  appointing  an  evangelical  pastor  in  accordance 
with  the  wishes  of  the  people  but  against  the  protest 
of  the  authorities  of  the  church.  "It  is  the  business 
of  the  Altenburg  council,"  Luther  wrote  the  elector, 
"and  of  your  Electoral  Grace  as  well,  to  keep  false 
preachers  out,  and  to  permit,  or  if  necessary,  compel 
the  installation  of  a  proper  preacher,  seals,  letters, 
custom,  law  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding."  This 
did  not  mean  the  formal  recognition  of  state  control. 
It  meant  only  that,  when  ecclesiastical  rulers  refused 


THE  FORMATION  OF  A  NEW  CHURCH   309 

to  take  up  the  work  of  reformation,  civil  rulers  must 
come  to  the  rescue.  Not  official  duty,  but  Christian 
love,  required  them  to  do  what  they  could  to  provide 
for  the  religious  welfare  of  their  subjects. 

Except  on  rare  occasions,  the  Elector  Frederick  kept 
his  hands  off  and  took  no  active  part  in  the  work  of 
reformation;  but  with  the  accession  of  his  brother 
John,  in  May,  1525,  the  situation  was  changed.  He 
was  devoted  heart  and  soul  to  Luther's  cause  and  was 
glad  to  let  it  be  known.  Abandoning  Frederick's  pol- 
icy of  non-interference  and  ostensible  neutrality,  he 
took  an  active  and  open  share  in  pushing  the  work  in 
Saxony.  One  of  the  principal  difficulties  the  new 
movement  had  to  face  was  the  lack  of  adequate  finan- 
cial support.  In  many  cases  those  in  control  of  eccle- 
siastical livings  were  out  of  sympathy  with  the 
Reformation  and  refused  to  employ  the  funds  for 
the  support  of  evangelical  preachers.  In  other  cases 
the  abolition  of  indulgences,  private  masses,  and  the 
like,  greatly  reduced  the  income  of  the  churches,  and 
too  little  was  left  to  maintain  a  regular  incumbent.  In 
the  summer  of  1525,  Luther  advised  the  new  elector 
not  to  respect  the  right  of  patronage  when  it  operated 
to  the  disadvantage  of  the  Reformation,  and  in  the 
autumn  he  urged  him  to  use  his  authority  to  prevent 
the  complete  impoverishment  of  the  churches  and  to 
turn  existing  funds  to  the  support  of  the  gospel.  Thus 
he  wrote  on  the  thirty-first  of  October: 

As  the  university  is  now  in  good  order  and  the  subject 
of  worship  has  been  taken  in  hand,  there  are  two  other 
matters  demanding  the  attention  of  your  Grace  as  civil 
ruler.  The  first  is  the  wretched  condition  of  the  parishes. 
No  one  gives,  no  one  pays.  Offerings  have  ceased,  and 
regular  incomes  are  lacking  altogether  or  are  too  meager. 
The  common  man  respects  neither  preacher  nor  pastor, 


310  MARTIN  LUTHER 

so  that  unless  the  parishes  and  pulpits  are  taken  in  hand 
by  your  Grace,  and  proper  support  provided,  in  a  short 
time  there  will  be  no  homes  for  the  clergy  left,  and  no 
schools  or  pupils.  Thus  God's  word  and  service  will  fall 
to  the  ground.  Therefore  may  your  Grace  permit  God 
to  make  still  further  use  of  you,  and  may  you  be  his  true 
instrument,  to  your  Grace's  comfort  and  satisfaction  of 
conscience.  For  to  this  God  certainly  calls  you  through 
us  and  through  the  existing  need.  Your  Grace  will  find 
a  way  of  doing  it.  There  are  cloisters,  foundations,  en- 
dowments, and  funds  enough,  if  your  Grace  will  appro- 
priate them  to  this  purpose.  God  will  also  add  his  bless- 
ing, and  will  give  the  business  success. 

A  year  later  he  wrote  the  elector  again : 

Since  all  of  us,  particularly  rulers,  are  commanded 
above  everything  else  to  educate  the  young,  who  are  daily 
born  and  are  growing  up  among  us,  and  to  keep  them  in 
order  and  in  the  fear  of  God,  schools  and  preachers  and 
pastors  are  necessary.  If  the  parents  won't  see  to  it,  let 
them  go  to  the  devil.  If  the  young  remain  uncared  for 
and  uneducated,  the  fault  is  the  government's.  More- 
over, the  land  becomes  full  of  wild  and  loose  persons,  so 
that  not  only  God's  command,  but  our  common  need, 
obliges  us  to  find  some  way  to  meet  the  situation.  Since 
papal  and  clerical  law  and  order  are  now  at  an  end  in 
your  Grace's  realm,  and  all  cloisters  and  foundations  have 
fallen  into  the  hands~oT~your  Grace  as  chief  ruler,  you 
have  also  the  duty  and  responsibility  of  looking  after  these 
affairs.  For  there  is  no  one  else  who  can  or  should 
do  it.  ... 

Where  a  city  or  village  has  sufficient  means,  your  Grace 
has  the  right  to  require  thefn  to  support  schools,  pulpits, 
and  churches.  If  they  will  not  do  it  for  their  own  good, 
it  is  the  duty  .of  your  Grace,  who  are  the  chief  guardian 
of  the  young  and  of  all  in  need,  to  compel  them  by  force 
to  do  it,  just  as  they  are  compelled  to  contribute  money 


THE  FORMATION  OF  A  NEW  CHURCH   311 

and  labor  for  the  building  of  bridges  and  roads  and  for 
other  needed  improvements. 

About  the  same  time,  at  the  suggestion  of  others, 
Luther  urged  upon  the  elector  the  appointment  of  a 
commission  to  visit  the  churches  throughout  the  coun- 
try and  to  report  on  their  condition  and  needs.  The 
visitation  began  early  in  1526,  and,  after  being  carried 
on  for  a  time  in  a  somewhat  desultory  fashion,  was 
finally  carefully  organized  and  became  a  most  impor- 
tant agency  in  the  reformation  of  Saxony.  The  visit- 
ors did  not  confine  themselves  to  the  financial  status 
of  the  churches,  but  took  up  the  whole  matter  of  life, 
worship,  and  doctrine.  They  did  much  to  improve 
religious  conditions  and  to  give  strength  and  homoge- 
neity to  the  new  movement.  As  they  were  named  by 
the  elector  and  reported  to  him,  the  control  of  the 
church  by  the  civil  government  received  an  added 
impetus. 

In  his  preface  to  a  book  of  instructions  prepared  by 
Melanchthon  for  the  use  of  the  visitors,  Luther  wrote : 

Now  that  the  gospel,  by  the  rich  and  unspeakable  grace 
of  God,  has  mercifully  been  restored  to  us,  and  shines  so 
clearly  that  we  can  see  how  deranged,  distracted,  and 
torn  Christendom  is,  we  should  have  liked  to  erect  again 
the  genuine  office  of  bishop  and  visitor,  which  is  greatly 
needed.  But  as  none  of  us  was  called,  or  had  a  clear 
commission  thereto,  and  St.  Peter  will  have  nothing  done 
among  Christians  unless  it  be  certain  it  is  God's  work, 
there  was  no  one  to  undertake  it  rather  than  another. 
And  so,  wishing  to  do  only  what  we  were  sure  of,  we 
kept  to  the  la\v  of  love,  which  is  laid  upon  all  Christians 
alike,  and  humbly  and  earnestly  begged  the  serene,  high- 
born, Prince  John,  Duke  of  Saxony,  etc.,  our  most  gra- 
cious lord,  ordained  of  God  to  be  our  country's  prince 
and  our  earthly  ruler,  that  out  of  Christian  love— for  by 


312  MARTIN  LUTHER 

civil  law  he  is  not  bound  thereto— and  for  the  sake  of 
God,  the  good  of  the  gospel,  and  the  benefit  and  salvation 
of  the  poor  Christians  in  his  dominions,  he  would  gra- 
ciously summon  and  appoint  certain  qualified  persons  to 
this  office,  which  by  God's  good  pleasure  his  Grace  has 
kindly  done. 

The  visitation  of  the  churches  of  his  diocese  had 
always  been  one  of  the  most  important,  though  widely 
neglected,  functions  of  the  bishop,  and  the  new  com- 
missioners, under  the  elector's  authorization,  were 
therefore  assuming  episcopal  duties  and  prerogatives. 
As  Luther  remarked,  when  referring  to  the  matter  in 
a  letter  to  Amsdorf,  "We  are  visitors ;  that  is,  bishops." 

The  visitors  found  things  in  a  very  deplorable  state. 
For  a  long  time  the  religious  interests  of  the  people 
had  been  sadly  neglected,  and  the  Reformation  had 
not  done  much  to  mend  the  situation.  Rather  it  had 
brought  wide-spread  demoralization,  and  had  broken 
down  respect  for  the  old  sanctions,  without  as  yet 
supplying  new  ones  to  take  their  place.  Luther  him- 
self was  loud  in  his  complaints  of  what  he  found. 
Thus  he  wrote  Spalatin,  in  1529: 

Everywhere  the  condition  of  the  churches  is  most 
miserable.  The  peasants  learn  nothing,  know  nothing, 
and  do  nothing  except  abuse  their  liberty.  They  do  not 
pray  at  all,  nor  do  they  go  to  confession  or  communion. 
They  act  as  if  they  were  wholly  free  from  religion.  As 
they  neglected  their  own  papal  usages,  they  now  despise 
ours.  Dreadful  it  is  to  contemplate  the  administration  of 
the  Roman  bishops. 

His  experiences  as  a  visitor  only  increased  his  dis- 
trust of  the  common  people  already  sown  in  his  heart 
by  the  peasants'  war.  He  became  more  than  ever 


THE  FORMATION  OF  A  NEW  CHURCH   313 

convinced  that  they  were  not  fit  for  self-government 
and  needed  to  be  controlled  with  a  strong  hand  in 
religious  as  well  as  in  civil  affairs.  To  the  end  of  his 
life  he  retained  his  belief  in  the  universal  priesthood 
of  believers,  so  beautifully  expressed  in  his  book  on 
Christian  liberty,  and  the  church  he  defined  as  a  com- 
munity of  true  Christians  already  saved,  completely 
free,  and  needing  no  rulers  and  no  laws.  But  though 
he  had  this  ideal  always  in  mind,  he  was  too  practical, 
and  too  much  concerned  for  the  welfare  of  the  mass 
of  men,  to  become  absorbed  in  the  formation  of  such 
a  select  community  of  saints.  He  would  be  glad  to 
have  a  company  of  genuine  Christians  meet  for  mu- 
tual edification  and  inspiration,  but  he  would  not  have 
them  separate  themselves  from  the  larger  church,  and, 
forming  an  independent  sect,  live  in  selfish  communion 
with  kindred  souls.  The  church  existed  for  the  sake 
of  the  world,  not  for  the  sake  of  its  own  members. 
Its  great  mission  was  to  proclaim  the  gospel  to  unbe- 
lievers and  half-believers.  The  last  thing  he  wished 
was  to  substitute  for  the  existing  church,  to  which  all 
sorts  of  people  flocked,  whatever  their  spiritual  state, 
a  small  and  private  conventicle  accessible  only  to  the 
elect.  On  the  contrary,  he  would  gather  all  he  could 
into  the  churches  day  by  day,  and  so  reach  as  many 
as  possible  with  the  Christian  message. 

He  did  draw  a  distinction  between  the  indifferent 
masses  and  genuine  Christians.  To  the  Lord's  Supper 
he  would  admit  only  the  latter,  thus  making  it  a  means 
of  testifying  publicly  to  their  Christian  faith.  But 
baptism,  he  insisted,  should  continue  as  heretofore  to 
be  administered  to  every  child  in  the  community,  that 
all  might  share  in  the  promise  of  forgiveness,  and 
none  grow  up  alien  to  the  church.  Thus,  whatever  his 
theory  of  a  true  spiritual  company  of  saints,  for  all 


314  MARTIN  LUTHER 

practical  purposes  the  church  continued,  as  it  had 
been,  a  public  institution,  constituting  an  integral  part 
of  the  life  of  the  community. 

Luther's  notion  of  the  church  as  established  to 
proclaim  the  gospel  made  it  necessary,  so  he  thought, 
to  see  that  it  actually  did  proclaim  the  true,  and  not  a 
false,  gospel.  To  permit  its  ministers  to  go  on  op- 
posing the  word  of  God  and  leading  the  people  astray 
was  to  destroy  the  church  altogether  by  making  it  a 
curse  instead  of  a  blessing  to  the  community.  Ac- 
cordingly, as  early  as  1522  we  find  him  insisting  that 
only  evangelical  preachers  should  be  allowed  to  minister 
in  the  churches,  and  those  opposing  the  gospel  should 
be  removed  from  their  positions.  "For  it  is  not  unjust," 
he  declared  in  a  letter  of  that  year  to  Count  John 
Henry  of  Schwarzburg,  "but  the  highest  justice,  to 
drive  the  wolf  out  of  the  sheep  fold,  and  not  to  mind 
if  he  be  disemboweled  in  the  process.  A  preacher  is 
paid  to  do  good,  not  harm.  If  he  does  harm,  he 
thereby  forfeits  his  stipend." 

In  1526,  in  a  letter  to  the  Elector  John,  he  went  so 
far  as  to  say  that  only  one  kind  of  preaching  should 
be  tolerated  in  any  town.  When  preachers  disagree, 
discord  is  sown  among  the  people,  and  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  civil  ruler  to  prevent  all  uproar  and  tumult. 

In  the  matter  of  religious  rites  and  ceremonies  he 
was  more  liberal.  Here  he  was  quite  willing  the 
widest  variety  should  reign  even  in  a  single  com- 
munity. In  1524,  a  clerical  friend  urged  the  conven- 
ing' of  a  synod  to  agree  upon  a  common  form  of 
worship  for  all  the  churches  in  sympathy  with  the  new 
movement ;  but  Luther  opposed  the  plan  as  tending  to 
produce  mechanical  conformity  and  infringe  liberty  in 
unessential  matters.  A  little  over  a  year  later,  in 
response  to  numerous  requests,  he  published  his 


THE  FORMATION  OF  A  NEW  CHURCH   315 

"Deutsche  Messe,"  or  "German  Order  of  Worship," 
not  as  a  law  to  govern  the  services,  but  as  an  indication 
of  what  was  done  in  the  Wittenberg  church.  "First 
of  all,"  he  said,  "I  beg  those  who  examine  this  order 
of  worship,  and  desire  to  follow  it,  not  to  make  out  of 
it  a  binding  rule  or  constrain  any  one's  conscience, 
but  in  accordance  with  Christian  liberty  to  use  it  as 
they  please  when,  where,  and  as  long  as  it  proves 
adapted  to  their  needs." 

The  book,  he  went  on  to  say,  was  not  intended  for 
those  already  Christians,— they  had  their  own  spir- 
itual worship  and  needed  none  of  his  help, — but  for 
those  who  wished  to  become  Christians  and  particu- 
larly for  the  young  and  immature.  "For  their  sakes 
you  must  read,  sing,  pray,  write,  and  versify.  If  it 
would  do  any  good,  I  should  be  glad  to  have  all  the 
bells  ring  and  organs  play  and  everything  make  a 
noise  that  could."  And  a  little  farther  on:  "Let  us 
not  be  too  proud  and  despise  such  child's  play.  When 
Christ  wished  to  attract  men,  he  had  to  become  a  man ; 
and  if  we  would  attract  children,  we  must  become 
children  with  them." 

He  recommended  the  use  of  German  in  the  ser- 
vices, but,  curiously  enough,  with  the  interest  of  a 
pedagogue  rather  than  a  pastor,  he  wished  to  retain 
some  Latin  as  a  help  to  pupils  in  the  schools.  For  the 
same  reason,  he  said,  he  would  be  glad  to  introduce 
Greek  and  Hebrew,  if  they  were  as  generally  studied 
as  Latin! 

More  important  for  the  future  of  the  evangelical 
cause  than  any  of  his  labors  over  details  of  organiza- 
tion and  worship  were  some  of  the  products  of  his 
pen,  upon  which  German  Protestantism  has  nourished 
itself  from  that  day  to  this.  His  Bible  translation  has 
been  already  spoken  of.  In  1529  appeared  his  large 


316  MARTIN  LUTHER 

and  small  catechisms,  the  latter  containing  a  most 
beautiful  summary  of  Christian  faith  and  duty,  wholly 
devoid  of  polemics  of  every  kind  and  so  simple  and 
concise  as  to  be  easily  understood  and  memorized  by 
every  child.  It  has  formed  the  basis  of  the  religious 
education  of  German  youth  ever  since.  Though  pre- 
ceded by  other  catechisms  from  the  pen  of  this  and 
that  colleague  or  disciple,  it  speedily  displaced  them 
all,  not  simply  because  of  its  authorship  but  because 
of  its  superlative  merit,  and  has  alone  maintained  it- 
self in  general  use.  The  versatility  of  the  reformer  in 
adapting  himself  with  such  success  to  the  needs  of  the 
young  and  immature  is  no  less  than  extraordinary. 
Such  a  little  book  as  this  it  is  that  reveals  most  clearly 
the  genius  of  the  man. 

Some  of  his  many  hymns  have  also  had  permanent 
influence.  He  was  greatly  interested  in  the  production 
of  good  German  songs  for  use  in  the  services  of  the 
church,  and  he  enlisted  the  aid  of  everybody  he  could 
to  enrich  evangelical  hymnody.  It  was  characteristic 
of  him  that  he  liked  strong  and  rugged  rather  than 
smooth  and  musical  verse,  and  was  fond  of  unsym- 
metrical  rhythms  and  stanzas  closing  with  an  un- 
rhymed  line.  He  frequently  lamented  his  own  lack  of 
poetic  gifts.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  most  of  his  hymns 
are  prosaic  and  commonplace  enough,  but  some  of 
them  show  inspiration  of  a  high  order,  and  "Ein'  feste 
Burg,"  the  noblest  of  them  all,  with  its  splendid  music 
from  an  unknown  hand,  has  sung  itself  into  the  lives 
and  hearts  of  multitudes  of  Protestants  of  his  own  and 
other  lands. 

In  spite  of  the  reformer's  desire  not  to  enforce 
uniformity  of  worship  and  not  to  make  the  order  he 
employed  a  law  for  other  churches,  the  example  of 
Wittenberg  was  generally  followed  throughout  Sax- 


THE  FORMATION  OF  A  NEW  CHURCH   317 

ony,  and  the  evangelical  services  in  all  parts  of  the 
country  were  much  alike.  In  general  they  were  similar 
to  the  Catholic  services  they  had  displaced.  In  his 
"Deutsche  Messe"  Luther  declared  nothing  ought  to 
be  changed  unless  it  violated  the  word  of  God  or  was 
harmful  in  itself.  Gowns,  candles,  altars,  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  host,  festivals,  fast-days,  and  many  other 
things,  he  would  allow  to  remain  unmolested.  Not 
that  they  were  all  ideal,  but  the  people  were  accus- 
tomed to  them,  and  it  did  no  harm  to  retain  them.  In 
1528  he  wrote  a  friend : 

I  condemn  no  ceremonies  but  those  opposed  to  the 
gospel.  All  others  I  retain  intact  in  our  church.  For  the 
font  stands,  and  baptism  is  administered  with  the  same 
rites  as  heretofore,  though  the  language  used  is  the  ver- 
nacular. I  even  leave  the  images  undisturbed,  except 
those  destroyed  by  the  rioters  before  my  return.  We  also 
celebrate  mass  in  the  customary  vestments  and  forms, 
only  adding  certain  German  songs,  and  substituting  the 
vernacular  in  the  words  of  consecration.  I  do  not  by  any 
means  want  the  Latin  mass  done  away,  nor  would  I  have 
permitted  the  use  of  German  had  I  not  been  compelled  to. 
In  short,  I  hate  nobody  worse  than  him  who  upsets  free 
and  harmless  ceremonies  and  turns  liberty  into  necessity. 

As  late  as  1541  he  could  inform  Chancellor  Bruck: 

Our  services,  God  be  praised !  are  so  conducted  as  re- 
gards unessential  things  that  a  layman  from  Italy  or 
Spain,  not  understanding  German,  would  be  compelled  to 
say,  on  seeing  our  mass,  choir,  organs,  bells,  and  the  like, 
that  ours  is  a  true  papal  church,  not  at  all  or  very  little 
different  from  what  he  has  in  his  own  country. 

Writing  in  1539  to  a  Berlin  clergyman  who  was 
troubled  by  the  many  Catholic  ceremonies  retained  in 


318  MARTIN  LUTHER 

the  worship  of  the  newly  established  evangelical  church 
of  Brandenburg,  he  said : 

In  God's  name  make  your  processions  with  a  silver  or 
gold  cross  and  with  cowl  and  mantle  of  velvet,  satin,  or 
linen.  And  if  your  lord,  the  elector,  does  not  find  one 
hood  or  cassock  enough,  put  on  three,  as  Aaron  the  high 
priest  wore  three  richly  adorned  garments  from  which 
the  priestly  robes  under  the  papacy  got  their  name.  And 
if  his  electoral  Grace  does  not  find  one  circuit  or  proces- 
sion enough,  with  its  ringing  and  singing,  make  seven,  as 
Joshua  marched  about  Jericho  with  the  children  of  Israel, 
shouting  and  blowing  trumpets.  And  if  your  lord,  the 
margrave,  would  enjoy  it,  let  his  electoral  Grace  leap 
and  dance  in  front  of  the  procession  with  harps,  kettle- 
drums, cymbals,  and  bells,  as  David  did  before  the  ark 
when  it  was  brought  into  the  city  of  Jerusalem. 

At  the  same  time,  though  tolerant  of  the  greater 
part  of  the  old  worship,  Luther  condemned  certain 
features  of  it  as  wholly  inconsistent  with  the  gospel. 
Chief  among  these  was  the  traditional  form  of  cele- 
brating the  mass,  which  represented  it  as  a  sacrifice 
and  good  work.  He  early  revised  the  service  in  such 
a  way  as  to  remove  this  objection,  congratulating  him- 
self that  it  was  in  Latin,  and  the  change  would  there- 
fore not  greatly  disturb  the  common  people.  The 
withholding  of  the  cup  from  the  laity  he  also  disliked, 
as  many  others  did,  because  out  of  harmony  with 
Christ's  words  of  institution.  But  he  regarded  this  as 
less  of  a  scandal,  and  for  some  time  was  willing  to 
tolerate  it  in  many  places  for  the  sake  of  weak  con- 
sciences. 

In  1525  he  went  so  far  as  to  insist  that  Catholic 
worship— meaning  particularly  the  sacrifice  of  the 
mass,  which  was  its  very  heart— should  be  prohibited 


THE  FORMATION  OF  A  NEW  CHURCH   319 

altogether  in  Saxony.  The  government,  he  asserted 
repeatedly,  is  charged  with  the  responsibility  of  pun- 
ishing and  putting  a  stop  to  open  blasphemy  and  pro- 
fanity of  all  kinds.  Within  the  category  of  such 
crimes  he  classed  engaging  in  Roman  Catholic  wor- 
ship, as  well  as  teaching  doctrines  contrary  to  "a 
public  article  of  the  creed  clearly  grounded  in  the 
Bible  and  everywhere  believed." 

Even  this  was  not  enough.  The  prohibition  of 
Catholic  worship  and  of  the  preaching  of  false  doc- 
trine he  wished  to  have  supplemented  by  the  require- 
ment of  compulsory  attendance  upon  the  established 
services.  In  1529  he  wrote: 

Since  the  decalogue  and  the  catechism  teach  also  civic 
and  domestic  duties,  and  these  need  to  be  frequently  in- 
culcated, such  persons,  whether  they  believe  the  gospel 
or  not,  should  be  required  to  attend  the  services,  that  they 
may  learn  how  to  behave  themselves  in  public  and  private 
and  may  not  do  others  harm  by  their  contempt  of  civic 
and  domestic  instruction.  For  if  they  wish  to  live  in 
society,  they  should  hear  and  learn  its  laws,  even  though 
unwillingly,  not  only  on  their  own  account,  but  for  the 
sake  of  their  children  and  servants. 

Little  enough  place  for  freedom  would  seem  to  be 
left  where  such  ideas  prevailed,  but  as  long  as  he  lived 
Luther  avowed  himself  in  favor  of  full  liberty  of 
conscience.  "Thoughts  are  tax-free/'  he  exclaimed  in 
the  words  of  an  old  proverb.  "Heresy  is  a  spiritual 
thing.  It  cannot  be  slain  with  the  sword,  burned  with 
fire,  or  drowned  with  water.  Over  the  soul  God  can 
and  will  let  no  one  rule  except  Himself  alone,"  he 
declared  in  his  work  on  civil  rulers  published  in  1523. 
Again  and  again,  while  insisting  most  earnestly  upon 
the  necessity  of  prohibiting  false  teaching  and  Cath- 


320  MARTIN  LUTHER 

olic  worship,  he  asserted  with  equal  emphasis  complete 
freedom  of  faith.  Writing  to  the  Elector  John  early 
in  1526,  he  said: 

They  are  not  obliged  to  believe;  only  open  scandal 
is  forbidden  them.  ...  In  their  chambers  they  may  wor- 
ship whom  they  wish  and  as  many  gods  as  they  please, 
but  publicly  they  shall  not  so  blaspheme  the  true  God 
and  lead  people  astray. 

And  to  a  friend  he  wrote  in  1529: 

Although  no  one  is  to  be  compelled  to  believe,  no  one, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  to  be  permitted  to  blaspheme  the 
doctrine,  but  he  must  give  his  reasons  and  listen  to  argu- 
ment. If  his  grounds  stand  the  test,  well  and  good.  If 
not,  he  must  keep  his  mouth  shut  and  believe  in  private 
what  he  pleases.  So  it  is  done  in  Nuremberg  and  here  in 
Wittenberg.  For,  when  it  is  possible,  opposing  doctrines 
are  not  to  be  tolerated  under  one  government,  that  trouble 
may  be  avoided. 

Clearly  Luther's  was  not  the  Catholic  principle.  Un- 
belief and  heresy  were  not  crimes  deserving  punish- 
ment. Only  the  public  teaching  of  them  was  to  be 
forbidden.  Consistently  therewith,  he  always  refused 
to  approve  the  traditional  death  penalty  for  heresy. 
Those  who  persisted  in  inculcating  false  doctrines  and 
openly  carrying  on  Catholic  worship  should  be  ex- 
cluded from  the  country,  but  no  other  punishment 
should  be  inflicted  upon  them.  There  were  Catholic 
lands  where  they  could  find  things  to  their  liking. 
Thither  they  ought  to  betake  themselves,  and  not  to 
be  allowed  to  disturb  the  public  peace.  In  the  same 
way  he  repeatedly  exhorted  his  followers  in  Catholic 
countries  to  refrain  from  disobeying  and  defying  the 
authorities.  If  their  consciences  did  not  permit  them 
to  do  as  they  were  bid  by  their  rulers,  they  should 


THE  FORMATION  OF  A  NEW  CHURCH   321 

quietly  withdraw,  and  seek  a  home  in  evangelical  ter- 
ritory. Luther's  attitude  toward  non-conformity  in 
doctrine  and  worship  was  thus  very  unlike  the  tra- 
ditional Catholic  attitude.  To  exile  non-conformists 
for  the  sake  of  public  peace  and  order,  mistaken 
though  the  policy  may  be,  is*  an  altogether  different 
matter  from  imprisoning  or  executing  them  for  the 
crime  of  sacrilege  or  treason.  With  all  his  intolerance, 
Luther  prepared  the  way,  in  some  degree  at  least,  for 
the  toleration  of  modern  days.  And,  in  any  case,  it 
may  fairly  be  doubted  whether  any  larger  measure  of 
freedom  would  have  been  possible  in  that  period  of 
strife;  whether  the  infant  movement,  the  forces  ar- 
rayed against  it  being  what  they  were,  could  have 
maintained  itself  without  the  strong  measures  of  self- 
protection  he  advocated. 

In  1526  an  imperial  diet  met  at  Spires,  on  the  upper 
Rhine.  Though  largely  in  the  minority,  the  evan- 
gelical princes  and  the  representatives  of  certain  free 
cities  let  their  sympathy  with  the  Reformation  be 
clearly  known  and  insisted  that  the  Edict  of  Worms 
could  not  be  carried  out.  Pope  Clement  VII,  who 
had  succeeded  the  luckless  Adrian  in  1523,  was  in 
league  with  King  Francis  against  the  emperor,  and 
Charles  was  too  much  occupied  to  pay  any  serious 
attention  to  German  affairs.  As  a  result,  the  diet 
agreed  upon  a  compromise,  postponing  the  final  settle- 
ment of  the  religious  question,  and  providing  that  in 
the  meantime,  so  far  as  concerned  the  Edict  of 
Worms,  each  ruler  should  conduct  himself  in  such  a 
way  as  to  be  able  to  defend  his  course  before  God  and 
the  emperor.  Though  not  an  official  authorization  of 
the  Reformation,  this  action  strengthened  the  hands 
of  the  Elector  of  Saxony  and  other  evangelical 
princes.  It  was  widely  interpreted  as  laying  upon 
21 


322  MARTIN  LUTHER 

them  the  responsibility  of  continuing  the  work  already 
begun  and  organizing  the  church  within  their  respec- 
tive territories  as  they  saw  fit.  Therein  the  Prot- 
estant state  churches  of  Germany  were  already 
foreshadowed. 

For  a  time  it  looked 'as  if  the  Reformation  would 
sweep  the  entire  country  and  a  national  German  church 
be  the  result  of  Luther's  labors;  but  the  hostility  of 
the  emperor  and  of  many  princes  of  the  realm  made 
this  impossible.  Instead  of  one  national  church  tak- 
ing the  place  of  the  historic  Catholic  institution,  there 
came  into  existence  a  number  of  separate  and  inde- 
pendent bodies,  bound  together  by  devotion  to  a  great 
leader,  by  the  acceptance  of  the  same  standards,  and 
by  common  hostility  to  Rome,  but  each  subject  to  the 
local  state  government  and  controlled  thereby.  Of 
independency,  or  separation  of  church  and  state,  there 
was  none.  With  the  generally  prevalent  belief  that 
only  one  form  of  religion  should  anywhere  be  toler- 
ated, and  with  Roman  Catholicism  intrenched  in  most 
of  the  states  of  Germany,  a  new  church  could  gain  a 
permanent  foothold  only  where  made  a  state  affair 
and  backed  by  the  civil  power.  The  princes  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  Reformation  could  therefore  do  noth- 
ing else  than  follow  the  example  of  Saxony  and 
organize  an  evangelical  state  church  each  for  himself. 

The  spread  of  the  Reformation  as  an  organized 
movement  depended  upon  them.  Where,  they  refused 
to  accept  it,  while  evangelical  sentiment  might  exist, 
evangelical  churches  were  impossible.  When  they 
were  won  over,  a  state  church  was  constructed  as  a 
matter  of  course,  and  Catholicism  was  put  under  the 
ban.  The  people  had  little  to  say  in  the  matter  either 
way.  The  great  mass  of  them,  indeed,  had  small  in- 
terest in  it.  The  pope's  prestige  had  long  been  low  in 


THE  FORMATION  OF  A  NEW  CHURCH   323 

Germany ;  but  to  break  with  him,  it  had  been  generally 
believed,  was  to  put  oneself  outside  the  Christian 
church  and  imperil  one's  eternal  salvation.  The  net 
result  of  Luther's  work  was  the  establishment  of  a 
non-papal  church,  still  in  possession  of  the  means  of 
grace,  and  so  like  the  old  as  to  appeal  to  the  same 
emotions  and  inspire  the  same  confidence.  Few  were 
so  devoted  to  the  papacy  that  they  felt  compelled  to 
turn  their  backs  upon  the  church  they  had  been 
brought  up  in  when  it  ceased  to  avow  allegiance  to 
Rome.  Few  were  so  devoted  to  the  principles  of 
Luther  that  they  could  not  find  their  religious  needs 
satisfied  in  a  church  still  under  papal  control.  Lu- 
theran sentiment  might  prevail  more  widely  here, 
Catholic  sentiment  more  widely  there;  but  in  every 
case  the  ruler  determined  whether  his  state  should 
stand  by  the  old  or  throw  in  its  fortunes  with  the  new. 
Cujus  regio,  ejus  religio  (Whose  the  rule,  his  the 
religion)  became  the  universal  formula. 

Many  and  various  were  the  motives  leading  one  and 
another  ruler  to  embrace  the  Reformation.  There 
were  those  like  the  electors  of  Saxony,  Frederick  the 
Wise,  John  the  Constant,  and  John  Frederick  the 
Magnanimous,  who  were  honestly  convinced  of  the 
truth  of  Luther's  gospel,  and  ready,  if  necessary,  to 
sacrifice  personal  and  political  advantage  to  the  main- 
tenance of  his  cause ;  but  there  were  others  who  were 
moved  by  considerations  of  a  different  kind.  Regard 
for  the  wishes  of  their  people,  impatience  with 
ecclesiastical  encroachments  and  clerical  corruption, 
hostility  to  pope  or  emperor,  desire  for  political  inde- 
pendence, the  wish  to  be  on  the  winning  side,  the  hope 
of  possible  advantages  in  any  change,  greed  of  gain 
looking  with  covetous  eyes  upon  the  property  of  the 
church — all  these  had  their  place. 


324  MARTIN  LUTHER 

As  time  passed,  the  evangelical  states  multiplied 
rapidly.  At  Luther's  death  the  greater  part  of  north- 
ern Germany  was  officially  Protestant,  while  most  of 
southern  Germany  remained  Catholic.  Despite  the 
varying  fortunes  of  the  two  confessions  in  the  re- 
ligious wars  which  followed,  and  the  liberty  ulti- 
mately won  everywhere,  the  prevailing  complexion  of 
North  and  South  is  still  much  as  it  was  then.  Nothing 
else  was  to  be  expected.  More  and  more,  as  time 
passed,  patriotism  and  local  pride  tended  to  promote 
loyalty  to  the  established  religion  and  contempt  for  the 
rival  faith. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

LUTHER  AND  ZWINGLI 

HAND  in  hand  with  the  organization  of  the  Lu- 
theran movement  went  its  segregation  from 
other  and  parallel  movements.  The  radicals  were 
repudiated  in  the  early  twenties,  the  break  with  hu- 
manism soon  followed,  and  later  came  the  split  be- 
tween the  German  and  Swiss  Protestants,  for  which 
Luther  was  wholly  responsible.  His  intolerance  ap- 
peared most  clearly  not  in  his  attitude  toward  Catholic 
doctrine  and  worship,  but  in  his  dealings  with  other 
evangelicals  who  disagreed  with  him  or  walked  in 
different  paths.  As  time  passed,  he  grew  more  im- 
patient of  dissent  and  more  insistent  upon  complete 
agreement.  This  was  not  a  mere  consequence  *$  ad- 
vancing years,  for  he  showed  it  in  his  dealings  with 
Carlstadt  and  the  radicals  as  early  as  1522,  when  he 
was  still  under  forty.  It  was  in  part  temperamental, 
the  natural  accompaniment  of  his  strong  convictions 
and  masterful  will,,  in  part  the  result  of  his  growing 
interest  in  the  consolidation  of  the  new  movement. 
A  free-lance  he  had  been  for  years;  now  he  was  be- 
coming an  organization  man,  and  he  felt  the  need  of 
harmony  and  cooperation  within  the  ranks  of  the 
evangelicals.  Characteristically  it  seldom  occurred  to 
him  to  promote  peace  by  waiving  any  of  his  own  prin- 
ciples or  prejudices.  Peace  was  to  be  had,  as  a  rule, 
only  by  all  his  followers  and  associates  accepting  his 

325 


326  MARTIN  LUTHER 

opinions  and  living  by  his  ideals.  His  general  attitude 
in  the  matter  appears  clearly  enough  from  the  follow- 
ing passage  of  the  "Table  Talk" : 

They  have  plagued  us  in  their  books  and  writings  with 
the  word  "charity" :  "You  Wittenbergers  have  no  char- 
ity!" When  we  ask  what  charity  is,  they  say,  "That  we 
should  be  harmonious  in  doctrine  and  abandon  these 
quarrels  over  religion."  Yes,  do  you  hear?  There  are 
two  tables,  the  first  and  the  second.  Charity  belongs  to 
the  second  table ;  there  it  is  above  all  works.  But  it  is 
said,  "Fear  God  and  hear  His  word."  About  this  they 
care  nothing.  Christ  says,  "He  that  has  loved  mother  and 
father  more  than  me  is  not  worthy  of  me."  Charity  you 
ought  to  have  toward  relatives  and  servants.  Love,  love, 
and  be  kind  to  mother  and  father.  But  "he  that  has  loved 
them  more  than  me" !  When  the  "me"  comes  charity 
ceases.  And  so  I  am  glad  to  be  called  obstinate,  proud, 
pig-headed,  uncharitable,  and  what  they  please,  so  long 
as  I  am  not  a  participant  with  them.  From  that  may  God 
preserve  me ! 

The  most  notable  example  of  Luther's  intolerance 
was  -MS  attitude  toward  the  famous  Swiss  reformer 
Ulrica  Zwingli.  Beginning  his  reforming  work  inde- 
pendently, Zwingli  soon  felt  the  influence  of  the  Wit- 
tenberg monk,  and  accepted  a  considerable  part  of  his 
religious  teaching.  In  practical  matters  more  of  a 
radical  than  Luther,  he  broke  more  completely  with 
Catholic  rites  and  ceremonies,  among  other  things 
rejecting  the  notion  of  the  real  presence  in  the 
Eucharist  and  making  the  Supper  only  a  memorial 
feast.  To  Luther  this  seemed  the  worst  of  heresies, 
and  a  warm  controversy  broke  olit,  which  continued 
for  many  years.  Personal  considerations  doubtless 
had  much  to  do  with  his  attitude.  The  growth  of  the 
Swiss  reformer's  influence  in  southwestern  Germany, 


ULRICH    ZWINGLI 
Painted  by  Hans  Asper 


LUTHER  AND  ZWINGLI  327 

resulting  in  the  alienation  of  many  of  Luther's  follow- 
ers, could  hardly  fail  to  prove  irritating,  and  that 
Zwingli's  doctrine  was  identical  with  Carlstadt's  did 
not  particularly  commend  it  to  him.  In  December, 
1524,  he  wrote  Amsdorf : 

Carlstadt's  venom  crawls  far.  Zwingli  at  Zurich,  Leo 
Jude,  and  many  others  have  accepted  his  opinion,  con- 
stantly asserting  that  the  bread  of  the  sacrament  is  in  no 
wise  different  from  that  sold  in  the  market. 

And  a  few  weeks  later  he  wrote  another  friend : 

Carlstadt,  wholly  given  over  to  the  demons,  rages 
against  us  in  many  little  books,  full  of  the  poison  of 
death  and  hell.  He  denies  that  the  sacrament  is  the  body 
and  blood  of  Christ.  I  am  now  replying  to  him,  though 
with  his  secret  machinations  he  has  tricked  many  of  the 
populace  in  many  places.  ...  In  His  own  good  time 
God  will  find  Carlstadt,  who,  I  think,  has  sinned  the  sin 
unto  death. 

But  there  were  deeper  reasons  for  the  disagreement. 
The  belief  in  the  real  presence  supplied  too  potent  a 
guaranty  of  the  gospel  of  God's  forgiving  love  in 
Christ  to  be  willingly  abandoned  by  Luther,  and  his 
conviction  that  it  was  explicitly  taught  in  the  New 
Testament  gave  him  warrant  for  insisting  upon  it  as 
a  necessary  article  of  faith.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
disagreement  over  the  sacrament  was  only  a  symptom 
of  a  general  difference  of  spirit  and  interest.  Zwingli 
was  a  humanist,  and  his  horizon  was  broader  than 
Luther's  and  his  emphasis  on  Christianity  less  exclu- 
sive. Though  for  the  most  part  in  formal  agreement 
with  the  Wittenberg  reformer,  he  was  not  so  con- 
trollingly  religious,  and  his  evangelicalism  was  of  a 
less  extreme  type.  He  had  large  political  plans,  and 


328  MARTIN  LUTHER 

hoped  to  secure  a  permanent  place  for  Protestantism 
in  Europe  by  a  coalition  of  the  German  Protestant 
states  with  Switzerland  and  France  against  the  em- 
peror and  the  pope.  More  a  man  of  the  world  than 
Luther,  he  cared  as  much  for  changing  the  map  of 
Europe  as  for  saving  the  souls  of  men. 

At  a  second  diet  of  Spires  held  in  1529,  when  pope 
and  emperor  were  once  more  at  peace,  drastic  meas- 
ures were  adopted  to  check  the  farther  spread  of 
the  Reformation.  As  a  consequence,  five  evangelical 
princes,  including  the  Elector  of  Saxony  and  the 
Landgrave  of  Hesse,  together  with  the  representatives 
of  fourteen  free  cities,  signed  a  formal  protest,  from 
which  the  name  "Protestant"  comes.  In  this  protest 
they  criticized  the  diet  for  reversing  by  a  majority 
vote  the  unanimous  action  of  1526,  and  declared  them- 
selves unable  to  submit  to  its  decision ;  for  in  matters 
affecting  the  honor  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  the 
soul  their  consciences,  they  claimed,  required  them  to 
obey  God  rather  than  man. 

In  order  to  consolidate  the  anti-papal  forces  and 
prevent  their  division  into  permanently  hostile  camps 
just  at  the  time  they  were  threatened  by  the  common 
foe,  Philip  of  Hesse,  the  political  genius  among  the 
evangelical  princes,  conceived  the  idea  of  arranging 
a  meeting  between  Luther  and  Zwingli,  where  they 
could  discuss  their  differences  and  possibly  come  to 
some  agreement.  He  had  long  been  favorably  dis- 
posed toward  the  Swiss  reformer,  and  believed  if  Lu- 
ther understood  him  better  he  would  be  willing  to 
waive  the  matters  in  controversy  for  the  sake  of  the 
general  cause.  He  therefore  invited  both  of  them, 
with  other  representatives  of  the  two  parties,  to  a 
conference  at  Marburg,  his  principal  seat  of  residence. 
Luther  was  opposed  to  the  conference  and  expected  no 


LUTHER  AND  ZWINGLI  329 

good  from  it,  as  he  frankly  informed  the  landgrave  in 
the  following  characteristic  letter : 

To  the  serene,  high-born  Prince  and  Lord,  Philip, 
Landgrave  of  Hesse,  Count  of  Katzenellenbogen,  Nidda, 
and  Ziegenhain,  my  gracious  Lord :  Grace  and  peace  from 
Christ,  serene,  high-born  Prince,  gracious  Lord.  I  have 
received  with  pleasure  your  Grace's  letter,  written,  I 
doubt  not,  with  a  gracious  and  Christian  mind  toward  me, 
in  which  you  fix  Michael's  day  for  my  coming  to  Mar- 
burg to  talk  with  the  opposite  party  in  friendly  and  pri- 
vate fashion.  I  have  also  read  the  letter  of  my  most 
gracious  Lord,  Duke  John,  Elector,  in  which  his  Grace 
is  earnestly  concerned  to  answer,  your  Grace  favorably 
for  the  good  of  the  cause,  that  God  may  show  His  favor, 
and  the  division  among  us  over  the  sacrament  may  be 
done  away.  I  believe  with,  all  my  heart  that  your  Grace 
has  the  very  best  intentions,  and  I  am  therefore  ready  to 
perform  for  your  Grace  the  service  you  ask,  even  though 
it  will  come  to  nothing,  as  I  fear,  and  will  perhaps  prove 
dangerous  for  us.  For  I  also  desire  peace,  about  which 
others  have  so  much  to  say  with  tongue  and  pen,  while 
their  conduct  is  s'uch  as  to  give  no  hope  of  it. 

All  the  more  I  will  take  this  opportunity  of  saying 
frankly  to  your  Grace  what  I  think.  It  looks  to  me  as 
if  the  other  side  were  seeking  through  your  Grace's  zeal 
to  gain  something  which  will  result  in  no  good,  namely, 
to  be  able  to  boast  afterward  of  having  done  everything 
they  could,  even  to  influencing  so  great  a  prince,  and  load 
us  with  reproach  on  your  Grace's  account,  as  if  we  had 
no  liking  for  peace  or  truth.  God  grant  I  may  not  be  a 
true  prophet!  I  have  had  experience  of  such  tricks  for 
twelve  years  and  have  often  been  badly  burned. 

For  if  it  be  not  a  stratagem,  and  they  are  really  in  ear- 
nest, they  ought  not  to  adopt  such  a  spectacular  course 
and  make  use  of  great  and  mighty  princes  who  have  other 
things  to  do.  All  this  was  not  needed,  for  we  are  not  so 
exalted,  nor  so  wild  and  barbarous,  that  they  could  not 


330  MARTIN  LUTHER 

long  ago  have  shown  us  in  writing  their  boasted  love  of 
peace  and  truth.  Accordingly,  if  your  Grace  is  willing  to 
do  it,  I  should  be  glad,  since  your  Grace  wishes  to  take 
a  hand  in  the  affair,  to  have  inquiry  made  of  the  other 
side  whether  they  are  disposed  to  yield  their  opinion,  that 
the  evil  may  not  at  length  become  worse.  For  your  Grace 
can  easily  see  that  all  conference  will  be  in  vain  if  both 
sides  come  with  the  determination  to  give  up  nothing. 
All  I  have  seen  hitherto  leads  me  to  think  they  will  stand 
by  their  position  even  after  they  have  rightly  understood 
our  reasons,  as  I  know  well  I  cannot  yield  when  I 
have  heard  theirs,  for  I  am  certain  they  are  wrong.  If, 
then,  we  separate  still  unreconciled,  not  only  will  your 
Grace's  expense  and  trouble  and  our  time  and  labor  be 
wasted,  but  they  will  also  continue  their  boasting  as  here- 
tofore, and  thus  compel  us  to  answer  them  again.  So  it 
were  better  to  leave  things  as  they  are.  For,  in  a  word,  I 
can  expect  nothing  good  from  the  devil,  however  fine  an 
appearance  he  puts  on. 

So  far  as  concerns  your  Grace's  fear  that  bloodshed 
may  follow  such  disunity,  your  Grace  knows  well  that  if 
it  come  by  God's  will,  we  shall  be  guiltless  of  it.  It 
is  not  a  new  thing  for  sectaries  to  cause  bloodsned. 
They  have  shown  it  in  Francis  von  Sickingen,  and  in 
Carlstadt  and  Miinzer,  while  we,  by  God's  grace,  were 
afterward  found  wholly  blameless.  May  Christ  our  Lord 
trample  Satan  under  His  feet  and  ours.  Amen. 

Your  Grace's  obedient 

MARTIN  LUTHER. 

June  23,  1529. 

As  the  Landgrave,  however,  in  spite  of  this  letter, 
persisted  in  his  plan,  Luther  finally  yielded  to  his  im- 
portunity and  promised  to  be  present.  Writing  in 
July  to  a  friend  named  Brismann,  he  remarked : 

The  Landgrave  of  Hesse  has  invited  us  to  Marburg  on 
St.  Michael's  day,  in  the  hope  of  promoting  harmony  be- 


LUTHER  AND  ZWINGLI  331 

tween  us  and  the  sacramentarians.  Philip  and  I,  after 
long  refusing  and  vainly  holding  back,  were  at  length 
compelled  by  his  insistence  to  promise  we  would  come. 
I  don't  yet  know  whether  the  project  will  be  carried  out. 
We  have  no  hope  of  a  good  result,  but  suspect  the  whole 
thing  is  a  trap  to  give  them  the  glory  of  victory. 

The  colloquy  was  actually  held  from  the  first  to  the 
fourth  of  October  in  Philip's  castle  at  Marburg,  'which 
still  crowns  the  hill  above  the  town.  There  were 
many  theologians  of  both  parties  present,  Luther  and 
Melanchthon  being  the  chief  representatives  of  Wit- 
tenberg; Zwingli  and  CEcolampadius,  of  Switzerland. 

As  might  have  been  expected,  in  view  of  Luther's 
attitude,  the  meeting  failed  altogether  to  bring  about 
the  desired  result.  Taking  his  stand  upon  the  literal 
interpretation  of  the  words  "This  is  my  body,"  he 
refused  to  budge,  though  plied  with  all  sorts  of  argu- 
ments. His  contempt  for  human  reason,  avowed  in 
his  early  attacks  upon  Aristotle  and  repeated  over  and 
over  again  since,  was  never  more  strikingly  exhibited. 
Rational  considerations,  drawn  from  the  nature  of  a 
physical  body,  counted  for  naught,  and  were  peremp- 
torily brushed  aside  as  heathenish.  Nothing  could 
better  have  shown  the  diversity  of  interest  between  the 
two  men  than  this  colloquy.  Luther  was  right  in  de- 
claring Zwingli's  spirit  different  from  his.  For 
Zwingli,  with  his  more  advanced  views  and  broader 
outlook,  it  was  easy  to  tolerate  his  antagonist  and 
cooperate  with  him ;  for  Luther  it  was  impossible.  It 
must  be  recognized,  too,  that  while  the  former,  like  the 
Landgrave  Philip,  hoped  for  a  great  political  league 
against  emperor  and  pope,  Luther,  opposed  on  prin- 
ciple to  armed  resistance,  was  altogether  averse  to  it. 
The  motive  driving  the  others  to  seek  peace  and  har- 
mony was  therefore  not  his. 


332  MARTIN  LUTHER 

In  reading  the  reports  of  the  Marburg  colloquy,  we 
are  inevitably  reminded  of  the  great  Leipsic  debate  of 
eleven  years  before.  As  Eck  then  insisted  upon  blind 
and  unquestioning  submission  to  the  authority  of  the 
church,  Luther  now  insisted  on  the  same  kind  of  sub- 
mission to  the  authority  of  the  Bible.  The  servant 
should  not  question  the  will  of  his  master;  he  should 
simpty  shut  his  eyes  and  obey.  No  wonder  CEcolam- 
padius  complained  that  he  was  a  second  Eck.  The  role 
of  conservative  was  now  his  instead  of  Eck's,  and 
though  the  authority  to  which  he  appealed  was  differ- 
ent, his  attitude  toward  it  was  the  same. 

Although  the  conference  at  Marburg  failed  to  ac- 
complish what  Philip  hoped  for,  it  was  not  wholly 
without  benefit.  Luther  discovered,  to  his  surprise, 
that  Zwingli  was  less  heretical  than  he  had  supposed. 
At  the  request  of  those  present  he  drew  up  a  confession 
of  faith  consisting  of  fifteen  articles,  and  while  its 
wording  was  not  altogether  satisfactory  to  the  Swiss 
theologians,  they  were  able  to  agree  to  the  whole  of  it 
with  the  exception  of  a  portion  of  the  article  on  the 
sacrament.  Luther  was  entirely  wrong  in  taking  their 
assent  as  an  indication  of  a  change  of  faith,  and  he 
was  unjust  in  concluding  that  their  convictions  meant 
little  to  them.  Their  action  showed  only  an  honest 
desire  for  peace  and  a  commendable  willingness  to 
overlook  mere  verbal  differences. 

On  his  way  home  Luther  wrote  ^A.gricola : 

We  were  magnificently  received  by  the  Prince  of  Hesse 
and  splendidly  entertained.  There  were  present  CEcolam- 
padius,  Zwingli,  Bucer,  and  Hedio,  with  three  excellent 
men,  Jacob  Sturm  of  Strasburg,  Ulrich  Funk  of  Zurich, 
and  another  from  Basel.  They  begged  most  humbly  for 
peace.  The  discussion  lasted  for  two  days.  I  replied  to 
both  CEcolampadius  and  Zwingli,  insisting  upon  the 


LUTHER  AND  ZWINGLI  333 

words  "This  is  my  body."  All  their  objections  I  refuted. 
The  day  before  we  had  a  friendly  discussion  in  private,  I 
with  CEcolampadius,  Philip  with  Zwingli.  In  the  mean- 
time there  arrived  Andrew  Osiander,  John  Brenz,  and 
Stephen  of  Augsburg.  To  sum  it  all  up,  the  men  are 
unskilful  and  inexperienced  in  debate.  Although  they 
perceived  their  arguments  proved  nothing,  they  were  un- 
willing to  yield  in  the  one  matter  of  Christ's  bodily  pres- 
ence, more,  as  I  think,  from  fear  and  shame  than  from 
wickedness.  In  everything  else  they  backed  down,  as 
you  will  see  from  the  published  report.  At  the  end  they 
asked  us  at  least  to  recognize  them  as  brethren,  and  this 
the  prince  earnestly  urged;  but  it  was  quite  impossible. 
Nevertheless,  we  gave  them  the  hand  of  peace  and  char- 
ity, agreeing  that  bitter  words  and  writings  should  be 
stopped,  and  each  should  teach  his  own  opinion  without 
invective,  but  not  without  argument  and  defense.  So 
we  parted. 

This  agreement  unfortunately  did  not  put  an  end  to 
the  controversy.  The  old  asperities  soon  reappeared 
in  the  writings  of  both  Luther  and  Zwingli.  Though 
the  latter  was  less  bigoted  than  the  former  and  readier 
to  unite  forces  with  him,  there  was  little  to  choose 
between  the  two  men  in  the  matter  of  temper  and  style 
of  polemic.  Arrived  home,  Zwingli  spoke  very  con- 
temptuously of  his  antagonist's  arguments  and  loudly 
claimed  he  had  completely  vanquished  him,  to  the 
older  reformer's  great  disgust.  Writing  the  following 
June  to  Jacob  Probst  of  Bremen,  Luther  said : 

In  boasting  that  I  was  vanquished  at  Marburg  the 
sacramentarians  act  as  is  their  wont.  For  they  are  not 
only  liars,  but  falsehood,  deceit,  and  hypocrisy  itself,  as 
Carlstadt  and  Zwingli  show  both  in  deeds  and  words. 
They  revoked  at  Marburg,  as  you  can  see  from  the  ar- 
ticles drawn  up  there,  the  things  hitherto  taught  in  their 


334  MARTIN  LUTHER 

pestilential  books  concerning  baptism,  the  use  of  the 
sacraments,  and  the  preaching  of  the  word.  We  revoked 
nothing.  But  when  they  were  conquered  also  in  the 
matter  of  the  Lord's  Supper  they  were  unwilling  to  re- 
nounce their  position,  even  though  they  could  see  it  was 
untenable,  for  they  feared  their  people,  to  whom  they 
could  not  have  returned  if  they  had  recanted. 

In  the  autumn  of  1531,  while  performing  a  chap- 
lain's duties,  Zwingli  was  killed  in  a  battle  between 
Zurich  and  the  Swiss  Catholic  cantons.  Commenting 
soon  afterward  upon  the  sad  and  untimely  event, 
Luther  wrote  his  friend  Link,  with  no  sign  of  re- 
lenting : 

We  see  the  judgment  of  God  a  second  time— first  in 
the  case  of  Miinzer,  and  now  of  Zwingli.  I  was  a  prophet 
when  I  said,  God  will  not  long  endure  these  mad  and 
furious  blasphemies  with  which  they  overflow,  laughing  at 
our  God  made  bread,  and  calling  us  carnivora,  savages, 
drinkers  of  blood,  and  other  horrible  names. 

In  1536,  through  the  efforts  of  the  Strasburg  theo- 
logian, Martin  Bucer,  peace  was  finally  concluded  be- 
tween the  Lutherans  of  Saxony  and  the  Protestants  of 
southwestern  Germany,  whose  sympathies  had  hitherto 
been  decidedly  Zwinglian.  The  death  of  the  Swiss  re- 
former had  made  union  with  Wittenberg  seem  im- 
perative to  Bucer  and  his  associates,  and  at  the  same 
time  by  removing  the  fear  of  Swiss  ascendancy  had 
rendered  it  easier  for  Luther  to  waive  his  objections  to 
it.  After  a  week's  conference  at  Wittenberg,  during 
which  the  theologians  of  southwestern  Germany  made 
many  concessions  and  succeeded  in  convincing  Luther 
of  their  belief  in  the  real  presence,  despite  their  differ- 
ent way  of  expressing  their  faith,  the  Wittenberg  con- 


LUTHER  AND  ZWINGLI  335 

cord  was  signed  by  both  parties  on  the  twenty-ninth  of 
May.  Though  efforts  were  later  made  to  include  the 
Protestants  of  Switzerland  in  the  same  agreement, 
they  were  without  result.  The  Swiss  remained  loyal  to 
Zwingli,  while  Luther  persisted  in  thinking  them 
heretical.  The  old  asperities  continued,  and  one  of 
Luther's  latest  books  was  an  exposition  of  his  doctrine 
of  the  Eucharist,  full  of  the  bitterest  denunciations  of 
the  sacramentarians,  as  Zwingli's  followers  were  com- 
monly called. 

The  whole  controversy  was  most  unfortunate. 
Though  we  can  easily  understand  Luther's  attitude,  it 
is  difficult  to  excuse  it.  As  in  too  many  other  cases, 
difference  of  opinion  gave  rise  to  personal  hatred  and 
vindictiveness,  which  the  great  reformer  was  unhap- 
pily unable,  as  many  a  one  has  been  unable  in  similar 
circumstances,  to  distinguish  from  zeal  for  God's  glory 
and  devotion  to  His  cause. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

AT  COBURG 

IN  1530,  another  imperial  diet  met  at  Augsburg,  and 
the  Emperor  Charles  appeared  in  Germany  for  the 
first  time  since  the  diet  of  Worms.  As  he  let  it  be 
known  that  he  would  insist  upon  a  final  settlement  of 
the  religious  question,  the  Protestant  princes  came 
prepared  for  the  worst.  Being  still  under  the  imperial 
ban,  Luther  could  not  appear  at  Augsburg,  nor  was  it 
felt  desirable  he  should,  for  conciliation,  not  con- 
troversy, was  the  need  of  the  hour.  Accordingly,  while 
Melanchthon  and  other  theologians  accompanied  the 
elector  to  the  diet,  he  was  left  behind  at  Coburg,  on 
the  Saxon  frontier,  about  a  hundred  and  thirty  miles 
from  Augsburg.  Writing  to  the  humanist  Eoban 
Hess  of  Nuremberg,  whom  his  friends  were  expecting 
to  see  on  their  way  to  Augsburg,  he  said : 

I  send  you,  my  Eoban,  four  epistles  at  once.  Living 
and  speaking  epistles  they  are,  yes,  and  most  eloquent- 
Justus,  Philip,  Spalatin,  and  Agricola.  I  should  gladly 
have  been  the  fifth,  but  there  was  one  who  said,  "Shut 
up ;  you  have  a  bad  voice." 

Upon  arriving  at  the  imposing  castle  of  Coburg, 
where  he  was  to  reside,  as  the  event  proved,  for  nearly 
six  months,  he  wrote  Melanchthon : 

We  have  at  length  come  to  our  Sinai,  dearest  Philip, 
but  out  of  this  Sinai  we  will  make  a  Zion,  and  will  build 
three  tabernacles,  one  for  the  psalter,  one  for  the  proph- 

336 


AT  COBURG  337 

ets,  and  one  for  JEsop.  But  this  by  the  way.  The  place 
is  very  agreeable,  and  most  convenient  for  study,  except 
that  your  absence  darkens  it.  ...  There  is  nothing  lack- 
ing suitable  to  a  life  of  solitude.  The  great  building 
crowning  the  summit  is  wholly  mine,  and  I  have  keys  to 
all  the  rooms.  They  say  more  than  thirty  men  eat  here, 
among  them  twelve  night-watchmen,  and  two  scouts  in 
each  tower. 

A  few  days  later  he  wrote  the  inmates  of  his  house 
at  Wittenberg  the  following  charming  letter,  revealing 
a  side  of  his  nature  not  often  seen : 

To  my  dear  table-companions,  Peter  and  Jerome  Wel- 
ler,  and  Henry  Schneidewin,  and  others  at  Wittenberg, 
severally  and  jointly:  Grace  and  peace  in  Christ  Jesus, 
dear  sirs  and  friends.  I  have  received  the  letter  you  all 
wrote  and  have  learned  how  everything  is  going.  That 
you  may  hear  in  turn  how  we  are  doing,  I  would  have  you 
know  that  we,  namely,  I,  Master  Veit,  and  Cyriac,  did 
not  go  to  the  diet  at  Augsburg,  but  have  come  to  another 
diet  instead. 

There  is  a  grove  just  under  our  window  like  a  small 
forest.  There  the  jackdaws  and  crows  are  holding  a 
diet.  They  ride  in  and  out,  and  keep  up  a  racket  day  and 
night  without  ceasing,  as  if  they  were  all  crazy-drunk. 
Young  and  old  chatter  together  in  such  a  fashion  that  I 
wonder  voice  and  breath  hold  out.  I  should  like  to  know 
whether  there  are  any  such  knights  and  warriors  still  left 
with  you.  It  seems  as  if  they  must  have  gathered  here 
from  all  the  world. 

I  have  not  yet  seen  their  emperor ;  but  the  nobility  and 
bigwigs  constantly  flit  and  gad  about  before  our  eyes,  not 
very  expensively  clothed,  but  simply,  in  one  color,  all 
alike  black,  and  all  alike  gray-eyed.  They  all  sing  the 
same  song,  but  there  is  an  agreeable  contrast  between 
young  and  old,  great  and  small.  They  care  nothing  for 
grand  palaces  and  halls,  for  their  hall  is  vaulted  with  the 

22 


338 


MARTIN  LUTHER 


beautiful,  broad  sky,  its  floor  is  paved  with  lovely  green 
branches,  and  its  walls  are  as  wide  as  the  world.  They 
do  not  ask  for  horses  or  armor;  they  have  feathered 
chariots  to  escape  the  hunters.  They  are  high  and 
mighty  lords,  but  I  don't  yet  know  what  they  are  de- 
ciding. So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  learn  from  an 
interpreter,  they  plan  a  great  war  against  wheat,  barley, 
oats,  malt,  and  all  sorts  of  grain,  and  many  a  one  will 
show  himself  a  hero  and  do  valiant  deeds. 

So  we  sit  here  in  the  diet,  listening  and  looking  on  with 
great  pleasure,  as  the  princes  and  lords  with  the  other 
estates  of  the  realm  so  merrily  sing  and  feast.  It  gives 
us  special  delight  to  see  in  how  knightly  a  fashion  they 
strut  about,  polish  their  bills,  and  fall  upon  the  de- 
fenses that  they  may  conquer  and  acquit  themselves 
honorably  against  corn  and  malt.  We  wish  them  fortune 
and  health,  that  they  may  all  be  impaled  on  a  spit  to- 
gether. 

Methinks  they  are  none  other  than  the  sophists  and 
papists  with  their  preaching  and  writing.  All  of  them  I 
must  have  in  a  crowd  before  me  that  I  may  hear  their 
lovely  voices  and  sermons,  and  see  how  useful  a  tribe 
they  are,  destroying  everything  on  earth,  and  for  a 
change  chattering  to  kill  time. 

To-day  we  heard  the  first  nightingale,  for  she  was 
afraid  to  trust  our  April.  We  have  had  lovely  weather 
and  no  rain  except  a  little  yesterday.  It  is  perhaps  other- 
wise with  you.  God  bless  you !  Take  good  care  of  the 
house. 

From  the  Diet  of  the  Malt-Robbers,  April  28,  1530. 

MARTIN  LUTHER,  Doctor. 

Worthy  to  be  placed  beside  this  is  the  following 
humorous  protest  against  the  conduct  of  his  old  and 
faithful  servant  Wolf,  written  some  four  years  later: 

To  our  gracious  lord,  Dr.  Martin  Luther,  preacher  at 
Wittenberg:  We,  thrushes,  blackbirds,  chaffinches,  lin- 
nets, goldfinches,  together  with  other  pious  and  honor- 


AT  COBURG  339 

able  birds  who  are  to  journey  this  autumn  over  Witten- 
berg, beg  to  advise  your  Reverence  that  we  have  been 
credibly  informed  that  one  named  Wolfgang  Sieberger, 
your  servant,  having  determined  upon  an  act  of  great 
and  cruel  boldness  out  of  anger  and  hatred  for  us,  has 
paid  a  high  price  for  some  old  worn-out  nets,  that  he 
may  rig  up  a  snare  and  take  away  not  only  from  our 
friends  the  finches,  but  also  from  all  of  us,  the  liberty 
given  us  by  God  to  fly  in  the  air  and  gather  grains  of  corn 
on  the  ground.  He  also  seeks  our  bodies  and  lives,  al- 
though we  have  done  nothing  to  harm  him  and  have  not 
earned  such  a  serious  and  sudden  attack  from  him.  Since 
all  this,  as  you  can  well  imagine,  is  very  hard  for  us, 
poor  free  birds,  who  have  no  barns,  nor  houses,  nor  any- 
thing in  them,  we  humbly  and  civilly  beg  you  to  induce 
your  servant  to  abandon  his  designs,  or,  if  that  be  im- 
possible, persuade  him  to  strew  corn  on  the  traps  the 
evening  before  and  not  get  up  and  visit  them  before  eight 
in  the  morning.  We  will  then  make  our  journey  over 
Wittenberg.  If  he  will  not  do  it,  but  insists  so  cruelly  on 
seeking  our  lives,  we  will  pray  God  that  he  may  be  re- 
paid by  finding  in  his  trap,  when  morning  comes,  frogs, 
locusts,  and  snails  instead  of  us,  and  at  night  be  overrun 
with  mice,  fleas,  lice,  and  bedbugs,  and  so  forget  us  and 
not  take  away  our  freedom  of  flight.  Why  does  he  not 
employ  such  wiles  against  the  sparrows,  swallows,  mag- 
pies, daws,  ravens,  mice,  and  rats,  which  do  you  so  much 
mischief,  steal,  rob,  and  carry  off  corn,  oats,  malt,  and 
barley  ?  We  do  none  of  these  things,  but  seek  only  little 
crumbs  and  scattered  grains  of  corn.  We  place  our 
cause  before  the  bar  of  reason.  Is  it  not  unjust  for  him 
to  plan  such  harsh  measures  against  us?  However,  we 
hope  in  God  that  as  so  many  of  our  brothers  and  friends 
have  preserved  their  lives  in  spite  of  him,  we  too  may 
escape  his  torn  and  dirty  nets  which  we  saw  yesterday. 
Given  under  our  customary  seal  and  quill,  in  our  resi- 
dence beneath  the  sky,  among  the  trees. 

Behold  the  fowls  of  the  air :  for  they  sow  not,  neither 


340  MARTIN  LUTHER 

do  they  reap,  nor  gather  into  barns;  yet  your  heavenly 
Father  f eedeth  them.    Are  ye  not  much  better  than  they  ? 

While  he  was  at  Coburg  his  father,  who  had  been 
ill  for  some  months,  passed  away,  to  Luther's  great 
grief.  Writing  Melanchthon  on  the  fifth  of  June,  he 
said: 

To-day  Hans  Reinicke  writes  me  that  my  dear  parent, 
Hans  Luther,  senior,  departed  this  life  the  Sunday  before 
Whitsuntide,  at  one  o'clock.  His  death  has  thrown  me 
into  sorrow  as  I  recall  not  only  our  natural  relationship 
but  also  the  great  love  I  bore  him,  for  from  him  my 
Creator  gave  me  whatever  I  have.  Although  it  is  a 
solace  to  me  to  know  that  he  fell  asleep  softly,  strong  in 
the  faith  of  Christ,  nevertheless  misery  and  the  memory 
of  his  most  delightful  companionship  have  stricken  my 
heart  so  that  I  have  scarcely  ever  so  despised  death.  But 
"the  righteous  is  taken  away  from  the  evils  to  come  and 
enters  into  rest."  How  often  we  die  before  we  really  die ! 
I  succeed  now  to  the  heritage  of  his  name,  being  almost 
the  oldest  Luther  of  my  race.  To  me  also  is  now  due  not 
only  the  opportunity  but  the  right  of  following  him 
through  death  into  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  which  He,  on 
whose  account  we  are  more  miserable  than  all  men  and  a 
reproach  to  the  whole  world,  will  graciously  give  to  us 
all.  I  will  not  write  more  now,  for  I  am  sad.  Worthy 
and  pious  it  is  for  me,  a  son,  to  mourn  such  a  parent,  by 
whom,  through  God's  mercy,  I  was  begotten,  and  by 
whose  labors  I  was  brought  up  and  made  what  I  am.  I 
rejoice  that  he  lived  in  these  times  and  saw  the  light  of 
truth.  God  be  blessed  forever  in  all  His  works  and  coun- 
sels. Amen. 

A  year  later  his  mother  followed  his  father  to  the 
grave.  Luther  was  unable  to  go  to  Mans  f  eld,  but  he 
comforted  her  in  her  last  illness  with  a  long  letter,  the 
only  one  we  have  addressed  to  his  mother.  It  is  unex- 
pectedly formal  and  conventional  in  tone,  suggesting  a 


AT  COBURG  341 

somewhat  surprising  lack  of  intimacy  between  the 
two ;  but  it  closes  with  a  genuinely  human  touch :  "All 
your  children,  as  well  as  my  Kathe,  are  praying  for 
you.  Some  weep;  some  eat  and  say,  'Grandmother  is 
very  sick/  God's  grace  be  with  us  all !" 

Arrived  in  Augsburg,  Melanchthon,  at  the  elector's 
request,  began  work  at  once  upon  a  defense  of  the 
Protestant  cause  to  be  presented  to  the  emperor  and 
diet.  The  result  was  the  famous  Augsburg  Confes- 
sion, the  first  of  the  great  Protestant  symbols.  The 
purpose  was  to  make  as  favorable  an  impression  as 
possible,  and  the  confession  was  therefore  framed  in 
such  a  way  as  to  magnify  the  agreements  and  mini- 
mize the  differences  between  Protestants  and  Catholics. 
The  evangelical  faith  found  definite  expression  in  it, 
but  the  emphasis  was  laid  upon  the  common  Catholic 
doctrines  accepted  by  both  parties,  and  in  the  matter 
of  forms  and  customs  repeated  attention  was  called  to 
the  conservative  character  of  the  changes  made. 

When  the  document  was  sent  to  Luther  for  his  in- 
spection, he  wrote  the  elector :  "I  have  read  Master 
Philip's  apology.  It  pleases  me  very  well,  and  I  have 
no  improvements  or  changes  to  make.  Nor  would  it 
do  for  me  to  make  any,  for  I  cannot  walk  so  softly 
and  lightly." 

On  the  twenty-fifth  of  June  the  confession  was 
read  before  the  diet.  The  Catholics  were  greatly  sur- 
prised at  its  moderation,  and  began  to  hope  the  Prot- 
estants would  yield  altogether.  Making  the  most  of 
their  conciliatory  temper,  they  tried  to  secure  all  man- 
ner of  concessions  from  them.  Loving  peace  above 
everything,  and  greatly  alarmed  at  the  hostile  attitude 
of  the  emperor,  Melanchthon  gave  up  one  thing  after 
another,  until  he  was  accused  by  many  of  his  asso- 
ciates of  weakly  betraying  the  whole  cause.  He  felt 


342  MARTIN  LUTHER 

the  responsibility  of  his  position  very  keenly,  and  was 
almost  beside  himself  with  worry.  Luther,  in  his 
far-away  castle,  though  suffering  much  from  ill 
health  as  at  the  Wartburg  nine  years  before,  grew 
firmer  and  more  confident  the  greater  the  fear  and 
anxiety  of  his  friends  at  the  diet.  He  encouraged, 
comforted,  exhorted,  and  admonished  them  as  only 
he  could.  We  still  have  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  of 
his  Coburg  letters,  among  them  some  of  the  finest  he 
ever  wrote.  The  following  passages  will  serve  to 
show  his  attitude  and  state  of  mind. 

To  Melanchthon  he  wrote  on  the  twenty-seventh  of 
June: 

I  vehemently  hate  the  miserable  anxieties  with  which 
you  write  you  are  consumed.  That  they  reign  in  your 
heart  is  due  not  to  the  magnitude  of  the  affair,  but  to  the 
magnitude  of  our  unbelief.  For  this  same  affair  was 
greater  in  the  time  of  John  Hus  and  of  many  others  than 
in  our  time.  And  though  it  were  great,  its  Author  and 
Controller  is  also  great,  for  it  is  not  our  cause.  Why, 
then,  do  you  thus  torment  yourself  perpetually  and  with- 
out respite  ?  If  the  cause  be  false,  let  us  revoke  it.  But 
if  it  be  true,  why  do  we  make  Him  a  liar  who  gives  us 
such  promises  and  commands  us  to  be  of  a  quiet  and 
restful  heart  ? 

On  the  twenty-ninth  he  wrote  him  again : 

I  am  pondering  this  affair  day  and  night,  reflecting 
upon  it,  turning  it  over  and  over,  arguing,  reviewing  the 
whole  Bible,  and  the  certitude  of  our  doctrine  constantly 
grows  upon  me.  I  am  more  and  more  confirmed  in  it, 
so  that,  if  God  will,  I  will  allow  no  more  of  it  to  be  taken 
from  me,  let  come  what  may. 

And  the  next  day : 

In  private  conflicts  I  am  weaker,  you  more  bold.  On 
the  other  hand,  in  such  public  affairs  you  are  as  I  am  in 


AT  COBURG  343 

private,  while  I  am  as  you  are  in  private,  if  that  should 
be  called  private  which  goes  on  between  me  and  Satan. 
You  despise  your  own  life,  but  fear  for  the  general  cause, 
while  I  am  in  good  enough  spirits  over  the  latter,  for  I 
know  certainly  it  is  just  and  true,  is  Christ's  and  God's, 
and  so  need  not  grow  pale  over  its  sins,  as  I,  little  saint, 
when  by  myself  am  compelled  to  grow  pale  and  tremble. 
Therefore  I  am  almost  a  care-free  spectator,  and  take  no 
account  of  these  threatening  and  ferocious  papists.  If 
we  fall,  Christ,  the  ruler  of  the  world,  will  fall  with  us. 
And  if  he  falls,  I  would  rather  fall  with  Christ  than  stand 
with  Caesar. 

Early  in  August  he  wrote  Chancellor  Briick : 

Recently  I  have  seen  two  miracles.  As  I  looked  out  of 
the  window,  I  saw  the  stars  in  heaven  and  God's  whole 
beautiful  sky,  and  nowhere  were  any  pillars  in  sight,  sup- 
porting it.  But  the  heavens  fell  not,  and  the  sky  still 
stands.  There  are  people  who  look  for  the  pillars  and 
want  to  grasp  and  feel  them.  Since  they  cannot,  they 
fidget  and  tremble,  as  if  the  heavens  would  certainly  fall, 
for  no  other  reason  but  because  they  neither  touch  nor 
see  the  pillars.  Could  they  lay  hold  of  them,  the  heavens 
would  stand  firm. 

Again  I  saw  big,  thick  clouds  floating  overhead,  so 
heavy  they  were  like  a  great  sea.  And  I  saw  no  foun- 
dation whereon  they  rested,  and  no  vessel  containing 
them.  Yet  they  did  not  fall  on  us,  but  greeted  us  with  a 
sour  countenance  and  flew  away.  When  they  were  gone, 
the  rainbow  appeared,  at  once  the  floor  supporting  them 
and  the  roof  protecting  us.  A  weak,  thin,  slight  floor 
and  roof  it  was,  almost  hidden  by  the  clouds,  more  like 
a  ray  of  light  shining  through  painted  glass  than  a  mighty 
floor,  so  that  you  could  hardly  help  being  afraid  for  the 
foundation  as  well  as  for  the  great  mass  of  water.  Nev- 
ertheless, this  frail  phantom  carried  the  burden  and  shel- 
tered us.  There  are  those,  again,  who  notice  the  weight 


344  MARTIN  LUTHER 

and  size  of  the  water  and  clouds  more  than  this  thin, 
slender,  and  light  phantom,  and  are  afraid.  They  would 
like  to  feel  the  rainbow's  strength.  Because  they  cannot, 
they  fear  the  clouds  will  cause  an  everlasting  flood. 

This,  I  venture  to  write  your  Honor  in  jest,  and  yet 
not  in  jest,  for  I  have  been  specially  pleased  to  hear  that 
your  Honor,  above  all  the  others,  has  good  courage  and 
a  confident  heart  in  this  our  trial.  I  had  hoped  at  least 
political  peace  could  be  preserved,  but  God's  thoughts  are 
far  above  our  thoughts.  It  is  right,  too,  since,  as  St.  Paul 
says,  He  hears  and  does  better  than  we  ask  or  think.  For 
we  know  not  how  to  pray.  If  He  were  to  hear  our 
prayer  that  the  emperor  should  grant  us  peace,  perhaps 
this  would  be  worse,  not  better,  than  we  think,  and  the 
emperor,  not  God,  would  have  the  glory.  But  now  He 
will  himself  give  us  peace,  that  the  glory  may  be  His 
alone,  to  whom  it  belongs.  .  .  . 

They  are  not  half  through  with  what  they  have  begun, 
these  men  of  blood.  Nor  are  they  all  at  home  again,  or 
where  they  would  like  to  be.  Our  rainbow  is  weak,  their 
clouds  are  mighty;  but  in  the  end  it  will  be  seen  whose 
are  the  thunders. 

Three  weeks  later  he  wrote  Melanchthon  again : 

You  write  that  Eck  has  been  compelled  by  you  to  con- 
fess we  are  justified  by  faith.  Would  that  you  had  com- 
pelled him  not  to  lie!  Eck,  forsooth,  may  confess  that 
righteousness  is  of  faith,  but  meanwhile  he  defends  all 
the  abominations  of  the  papacy;  he  kills,  he  persecutes, 
he  condemns  those  professing  this  doctrine,  nor  does  he 
yet  repent,  but  goes  right  on.  The  same  is  done  by  all 
our  enemies.  With  them,  if  it  please  Christ,  seek  condi- 
tions of  peace,  and  labor  in  vain,  until  they  find  a  chance 
to  destroy  us.  ... 

So  far  as  concerns  what  you  write  about  the  restora- 
tion of  obedience  to  the  bishops  in  the  matter  of  juris- 
diction and  ceremonies,  take  care  you  do  not  give  more 
than  you  have,  lest  we  be  compelled  hereafter  to  wage  a 


AT  COBURG  345 

more  difficult  and  dangerous  war  for  the  defense  of  the 
gospel.  I  know  you  always  except  the  gospel  in  these 
compacts,  but  I  fear  they  will  accuse  us  in  the  future  of 
perfidy  and  inconstancy  if  we  do  not  keep  to  what  they 
wish.  For  they  will  interpret  our  concessions  largely, 
more  largely,  most  largely;  their  own  narrowly,  more 
narrowly,  most  narrowly. 

In  short,  the  negotiations  looking  to  harmony  in  doc- 
trine wholly  displease  me.  For  harmony  is  clearly  quite 
impossible  unless  the  pope  be  willing  to  abolish  his 
papacy.  It  was  enough  to  give  a  reason  for  our  faith  and 
ask  for  peace.  How  can  we  hope  to  convert  them  to  the 
truth  ?  We  have  come  to  hear  whether  they  approve  our 
teaching  or  not,  leaving  them  free  to  remain  as  they  are. 
And  we  ask  whether  they  will  approve  or  disapprove.  If 
they  disapprove,  what  good  does  it  do  to  seek  concord 
with  enemies  ?  If  they  approve,  what  is  the  use  of  trying 
to  keep  the  old  abuses?  But  since  our  doctrines  are 
certainly  condemned  by  them,  for  they  do  not  repent, 
but  insist  on  retaining  their  own,  why  do  we  not  see  the 
deceit  and  falsehood  in  all  they  are  attempting?  You 
cannot  say  that  their  efforts  are  prompted  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  when  there  is  no  penitence,  faith,  or  piety  in  them. 
May  the  Lord,  who  has  begun  His  work  in  you,  perfect 
it.  To  Him  I  commend  you  with  all  my  heart. 

Finally,  on  the  twentieth  of  September,  he  wrote  his 
friend  Justus  Jonas : 

I  am  almost  bursting  with  wrath  and  indignation.  I 
beg  you  will  abruptly  break  off  negotiations  with  them 
and  return  home.  They  have  the  confession,  they  have 
the  gospel.  If  they  will,  let  them  accept  it.  If  they  will 
not,  let  them  go  where  they  belong.  If  war  comes  as  a 
consequence,  come  it  will;  we  have  prayed  and  done 
enough. 

The  concessions  made  by  Melanchthon  proved,  after 
all,  of  no  avail.  The  Catholic  leaders  would  yield 


346  MARTIN  LUTHER 

nothing,  and  most  of  the  Protestants  refused  to  in- 
dorse Melanchthon's  course.  Some  of  them,  indeed, 
were  so  incensed  at  him  that  Luther  had  to  come  to 
his  rescue  and  defend  him  against  their  wrath.  On 
the  third  of  August  a  confutation  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession  was  read  before  the  diet,  and  declared  by 
the  emperor  to  represent  his  own  faith.  He  insisted 
upon  its  acceptance  by  all  the  princes,  for  he  would 
allow  no  schism,  so  he  announced,  in  Germany. 

On  the  twenty-second  of  September,  with  the  ap- 
proval of  the  Catholic  majority,  he  laid  before  the 
Protestants  the  decision  of  the  diet,  declaring  their 
confession  unsatisfactory  and  giving  them  until  the 
fifteenth  of  April  to  repent  and  submit. 

On  the  first  of  October  Luther  wrote  Lazarus 
Spengler  of  Nuremberg: 

The  Augsburg  decision,  my  dear  sir  and  friend,  of 
which  you  have  written  Master  Veit,  was  told  me  ver- 
bally and  in  writing  by  my  gracious  lord  Duke  Ernest  of 
Liineburg.  That,  I  take  it,  is  called  worldly  wisdom. 
There  it  can  be  seen  that  our  Christ,  though  condemned 
by  them,  is  yet  so  mighty  that  he  can  rain  not  only  water 
but  also  fools.  What  else  was  to  be  expected,  when  they 
rage  against  God's  manifest  wisdom,  than  that  they  would 
blaspheme  God  and  mock  us,  as  the  second  psalm  says? 
But  it  will  not  end  there.  They  must  also  experience  the 
next  little  verse,  "He  will  speak  to  them  in  His  wrath." 
They  will  have  it  so;  let  it  be  as  they  wish.  We  are 
guiltless  and  have  done  enough.  Their  blood  be  upon 
their  own  heads. 

A  couple  of  days  later  he  wrote  the  Elector  John : 

Grace  and  peace  in  Christ,  most  serene,  high-born 
Prince,  most  gracious  Lord !  I  rejoice  with  all  my  heart 
that  your  Grace,  by  the  grace  of  God,  has  come  out  of  the 


AT  COBURG  347 

hell  at  Augsburg.  Though  the  disfavor  of  men  looks 
sour  not  only  to  God,  but  to  the  devil  as  well,  we  yet  hope 
God's  grace,  already  ours,  will  be  still  more  richly  with 
us.  They  are  in  God's  hands  as  well  as  we,  that  is  cer- 
tain, and  they  will  neither  do  nor  accomplish  anything 
unless  He  wills  it.  They  cannot  hurt  a  hair  of  our  heads, 
or  of  any  one's,  unless  God  compels  it.  I  have  com- 
mended the  cause  to  my  Lord  God.  He  began  it ;  that  I 
know.  He  will  also  continue  it ;  that  I  believe.  It  is  not 
in  man's  power  to  start  or  create  such  a  doctrine.  Since 
it  is  God's,  and  all  depends  on  His  power  and  skill,  not 
ours,  I  will  watch  to  see  who  they  are  that  wish  to  op- 
pose and  defy  God  Himself.  Let  things  go  as  they  please, 
in  God's  name.  It  is  written  in  the  fifty-fifth  psalm, 
"Bloodthirsty  and  deceitful  men  shall  not  live  out  half 
their  days."  They  must  be  allowed  to  begin  and  to 
threaten,  but  to  finish  and  bring  to  a  successful  issue,  that 
they  cannot.  Christ  our  Lord  strengthen  your  Grace  in 
a  firm  and  joyful  mind  !  Amen ! 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

RELIGION  AND  POLITICS 

IN  the  winter  following  the  adjournment  of  the  Diet 
of  Augsburg,  certain  Protestant  princes  and  the 
representatives  of  a  number  of  free  cities  met  in  the 
city  of  Schmalkalden  to  form  a  defensive  league  for 
mutual  protection  against  the  emperor  and  the  Catho- 
lic princes,  who,  it  was  feared,  would  attempt  to  com- 
pel submission  with  the  sword.  Hitherto  Luther  had 
consistently  opposed  armed  resistance  to  the  emperor, 
not  because  he  disapproved  of  war  as  such,  for  as  a 
German  patriot  he  warmly  advocated  war  against  the 
Turks,  but  because  he  believed  in  submission  to  lawful 
rulers  in  all  circumstances  and  whatever  their  charac- 
ter. But  after  the  Diet  of  Augsburg  the  elector's  law- 
yers succeeded  in  convincing  him,  as  they  had  already 
convinced  their  prince,  that  in  certain  contingencies 
resistance  was  legal.  He  consequently  withdrew  his 
objections,  and  threw  upon  them  the  responsibility  of 
determining  what  those  contingencies  were.  The  argu- 
ments of  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  laid  before  Luther 
in  a  letter  of  October  21,  may  also  have  had  something 
to  do  with  his  change  of  attitude.  In  February,  1531, 
writing  to  his  friend  Lazarus  Spengler,  he  justified  the 
change  as  follows : 

Master  Veit  has  informed  me  you  are  troubled  by  the 
report  that  I  have  recanted  my  former  advice  not  to  re- 
sist the  emperor.  I  am  not  aware  of  any  recantation.  It 
is  true  they  disputed  sharply  with  us  at  Torgau,  and  since 

348 


RELIGION  AND  POLITICS  349 

some  of  them  wished  to  do  what  they  thought  best  with- 
out consulting  us,  we  were  obliged  to  let  it  go  at  that. 
But  when  we  finally  insisted  that  the  principle,  "Force 
may  be  met  by  force,"  was  not  enough,  they  declared  that 
imperial  law  permitted  violent  resistance  to  the  authori- 
ties in  cases  of  notorious  injustice.  Whether  this  was  so 
or  not  we  said  we  did  not  know ;  but  if  the  emperor  had 
thus  bound  himself,  we  would  leave  him  to  his  fate,  and 
they  might  see  to  it.  For  since  our  doctrine  says,  "Ren- 
der unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's/'  and  Caesar 
has  decreed  that  he  may  be  resisted  in  cases  of  notorious 
injustice,  we  ought  not  to  alter  or  criticize  his  law.  The 
affair  then  reduced  itself  to  this  syllogism :  whatever  Cae- 
sar, or  the  law  of  Caesar,  decrees,  must  be  obeyed;  but 
the  law  decrees  that  he  must  be  resisted  in  such  a  case ; 
therefore  he  must  be  resisted.  Now,  we  have  always 
taught  the  major  premise,  that  the  authorities  must  be 
obeyed  in  civil  affairs;  but  we  do  not  assert  the  minor 
premise,  nor  do  we  know  anything  about  it.  Wherefore 
we  drew  no  conclusion,  but  referred  the  whole  matter  to 
the  jurists. 

Evidently  the  pressure  of  events  was  too  much  for 
Luther.  It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  the  Protestant 
states,  aware  of  their  strength  and  with  so  aggressive 
a  prince  as  Philip  of  Hesse  among  their  leaders,  would 
permanently  follow  the  policy  of  passive  resistance 
hitherto  advocated  by  the  reformer.  He  therefore 
made  the  best  of  the  situation,  and  allowed  himself  to 
be  convinced  by  somewhat  flimsy  arguments.  The 
appeal  to  the  law  was  only  a  pretext.  The  Protestants 
would  doubtless  have  protected  themselves  against 
armed  attack  quite  without  regard  to  the  legality  of 
their  action.  Luther  showed  common  sense,  if  not 
consistency,  in  accepting  the  technical  plea  of  the  law- 
yers and  making  the  best  of  a  situation  he  was  power- 
less to  mend. 


350  MARTIN  LUTHER 

Later  he  went  still  further,  as  appears,  for  instance, 
from  the  following  memorandum  of  1539,  signed  by 
himself  and  other  theologians : 

Doubtless  every  father  is  bound  to  protect  wife  and 
child  as  far  as  he  can  against  violent  death,  and  there  is 
no  difference  between  a  private  murderer  and  the  empe- 
ror, when  the  latter  goes  beyond  his  office  and  makes  use 
of  unjust  force,  particularly  force  notoriously  unjust;  for 
by  natural  law  open  violence  does  away  with  all  duty 
between  subject  and  ruler.  The  present  case  is  of  this 
sort,  since  the  emperor  wishes  to  compel  his  subjects  to 
blasphemy  and  idolatry.  Thus  Constantine  overthrew  his 
ally  and  brother-in-law  Licinius,  who  refused  to  give  up 
his  tyranny,  although  Licinius  was  practising  tyranny 
only  in  his  own  dominions.  All  this,  as  I  have  said,  is 
without  doubt  right  and  Christian,  and  we  are  bound  to 
confess  it  in  danger  and  death.  But  it  is  all  to  be  under- 
stood as  referring  to  defense.  How  can  a  man  use  his 
body  and  his  miserable  life  in  a  better  and  more  praise- 
worthy way  than  in  such  service  of  God,  for  the  rescue 
of  divine  honor,  and  the  protection  of  poor  Christendom, 
as  David,  Hezekiah,  and  other  holy  kings  and  princes 
did?  Such  affairs  are  worth  venturing  body  and  life  for. 

The  other  question  is  whether  the  defender  is  bound  to 
wait  until  his  enemy  actually  begins  the  attack.  Our  an- 
swer to  this  is,  When  the  ban  is  pronounced  against  one 
or  more  allies  the  enemy  has  already  declared  war  and 
the  defender  has  the  right  to  anticipate  attack,  as  both 
natural  and  written  law  prescribe,  according  to  the  rule 
referred  to  above.  For  the  gospel  does  not  forbid,  but 
confirms,  the  ruler's  office  and  natural  law, 

The  complete  change  of  attitude  is  very  interesting, 
showing  to  what  a  degree  the  necessities  of  the  devel- 
oping political  situation  had  influenced  the  originally 
simple-minded  and  unworldly  monk. 


l-'roin  a  photograph  l>y  Wilhehn  Ernst  &  Son,  Her 

LUTHER'S  ROOM  IN  THE  C 


RELIGION  AND  POLITICS  351 

The  spring  of  1531  found  the  emperor  in  no  posi- 
tion to  enforce  the  decision  of  the  Diet  of  Augsburg 
and  compel  the  Protestants  to  recant  and  submit. 
Banded  together  as  they  were,  the  evangelical  states 
presented  too  strong  a  front  to  be  attacked  with  im- 
punity, while  among  the  Catholic  rulers  there  was  too 
much  jealousy  of  the  growing  power  of  the  house  of 
Hapsburg  to  enable  the  emperor  to  count  upon  their 
united  support.  Meanwhile  the  need  of  internal  har- 
mony became  ever  more  imperative.  On  the  east, 
Germany  was  menaced  with  a  Turkish  invasion,  from 
which  the  territory  of  the  emperor's  brother  Ferdinand 
of  Austria  must  suffer  most.  On  the  west,  Charles's 
old  enemy  Francis  was  continually  threatening  war, 
and  an  alliance  between  him  and  the  Schmalkald 
league  seemed  not  improbable.  In  these  circum- 
stances a  conflict  with  the  Protestant  princes  of  Ger- 
many was  the  last  thing  the  emperor  desired.  In  the 
summer  of  1532,  to  Luther's  great  satisfaction  and  to 
the  decided  advantage  of  the  evangelical  cause,  there 
was  concluded  the  religious  peace  of  Nuremberg,  sus- 
pending all  hostilities  and  leaving  the  adherents  of  the 
new  faith  unmolested  until  a  general  council  should 
decide  the  questions  in  dispute  between  them  and  their 
opponents.  When  some  of  the  Protestant  rulers  hesi- 
tated to  accept  anything  less  than  permanent  and  un- 
conditional peace,  and  demanded  other  concessions 
which  the  emperor  was  unwilling  to  grant,  Luther 
assumed  the  unaccustomed  role  of  moderator,  writing 
to  the  Elector  John : 

His  imperial  Majesty  has  done  enough,  and  the  guilt 
and  shame  will  be  ours  if  we  refuse  the  offer  of  peace. 
God  greets  us  graciously ;  if  we  do  not  thank  Him,  we 
shall  sin  grievously,  and  enjoy  no  good  fortune. 


352  MARTIN  LUTHER 

And  to  the  Crown-prince  John  Frederick : 

I  am  afraid  if  we  let  such  an  opportunity  for  peace  go 
by,  so  good  a  one  will  never  come  again.  As  the  proverb 
says,  "Opportunity  has  a  head  full  of  hair  in  front,  but 
bald  behind."  This  the  papists  discovered  when  they 
would  not  yield  at  Augsburg. 

The  emperor  hoped  a  council  could  soon  be  secured, 
but  year  after  year  went  by  without  its  meeting,  and 
the  status  quo  continued  virtually  undisturbed  until 
after  Luther's  death. 

During  this  period  Protestantism  spread  very  rap- 
idly. With  the  passing  away  of  the  older  princes, 
many  of  them  Luther's  bitter  enemies,  there  came  upon 
the  scene  a  new  generation  imbued  with  Protestant 
ideas,  and  the  reformer  had  the  joy  of  seeing  one  after 
another  state  join  the  ranks  of  the  evangelicals.  Most 
satisfactory  of  all  was  the  winning  of  ducal  Saxony, 
where  until  almost  the  end  of  Luther's  life  there  ruled 
to  his  great  annoyance  old  Duke  George  the  Bearded, 
one  of  the  most  determined  and  influential  opponents 
of  the  Reformation.  The  death  of  his  two  sons  threw 
the  succession  to  his  brother  Henry,  already  an  avowed 
evangelical,  and  despite  George's  last  desperate  ef- 
fort to  prevent  the  Protestantizing  of  his  realm  by 
making  the  emperor's  brother  Ferdinand  his  heir, 
Henry  came  to  the  throne  in  1539,  and  the  country, 
already  honeycombed  with  Lutheran  doctrine,  at  once 
officially  embraced  the  Reformation.  On  the  twenty- 
second  of  May  Luther  entered  Leipsic  in  company  with 
his  elector,  and  had  the  satisfaction  of  occupying  the 
pulpit  of  the  principal  church,  where  he  had  been  re- 
fused permission  to  preach  twenty  years  before,  at  the 
time  of  his  great  debate  with  Eck. 

Other  states  followed  in  rapid  succession  the  exam- 


RELIGION  AND  POLITICS  353 

pie  of  ducal  Saxony.  For  a  time  it  looked  as  if  all 
Germany  would  soon  be  won  to  the  new  faith  and 
ecclesiastical  unity  be  reestablished  by  the  complete 
disappearance  of  Catholicism. 

In  1534,  Pope  Clement  VII  was  succeeded  by  Paul 
III,  and  the  project  of  holding  a  council,  consistently 
opposed  by  Clement,  for  fear  his  authority  and  rev- 
enues would  be  curtailed,  was  taken  up  in  earnest  by 
the  new  pope.  Recognizing  the  existence  of  many 
abuses  within  the  church,  he  hoped  to  stem  the  grow- 
ing tide  of  revolt  in  Germany,  France,  England,  and 
elsewhere,  and  also  to  put  a  stop  to  doctrinal  heresy, 
by  yielding  to  the  emperor's  importunity  and  taking 
seriously  in  hand  the  work  of  reform  on  Catholic 
principles  and  along  Catholic  lines. 

In  1535  he  sent  a  legate,  Pietro  Paolo  Vergerio,  to 
Germany  to  inform  the  princes  of  his  plan  of  holding 
a  council  somewhere  outside  of  Germany,  and,  if  pos- 
sible, to  secure  their  promise  to  attend.  Vergerio  could 
not  restrain  his  curiosity  to  see  the  great  heresiarch, 
and  early  in  November  took  occasion  to  stop  over  in 
Wittenberg  and  secure  an  interview  with  him.  Writ- 
ing to  his  friend  Justus  Jonas,  a  few  days  afterward, 
Luther  remarked : 

The  legate  of  the  Roman  pontiff  suddenly  appeared  in 
this  very  town.  Now  he  is  with  the  margrave.  The  man 
seems  to  fly,  not  ride.  But  would  that  you  had  been  pres- 
ent !  When  I  declined  an  invitation  to  supper  in  the  eve- 
ning after  the  bath,  he  invited  me  and  Bugenhagen  to 
breakfast.  We  went  and  ate  with  him  in  the  castle,  but 
what  was  said  it  is  not  lawful  for  a  man  to  utter.  I 
played  the  Luther  during  the  whole  meal,  and  as  the  Eng- 
lishman Anthony  was  also  invited,  I  acted  as  his  repre- 
sentative, with  the  most  aggravating  words,  as  he  has 
written  you.  When  I  see  you  I  will  tell  you  about  it. 

23 


354  MARTIN  LUTHER 

In  preparation  for  the  interview,  which  occurred  on 
a  Sunday  morning,  Luther  put  on  his  best  clothes  and 
had  his  hair  dressed  with  unusual  care,  informing  the 
surprised  barber  that  he  wished  to  look  as  young  as 
possible  that  Verger io  might  think :  "The  devil !  if 
Luther  has  made  so  much  trouble  while  still  young, 
what  will  he  do  when  he  gets  old?"  To  the  barber's 
protest  that  he  would  offend  the  legate,  he  replied: 
"That  is  just  what  I  want  to  do.  They  have  offended 
us  enough,  and  you  must  deal  thus  with  serpents  and 
foxes." 

His  effort  to  appear  young  was  a  success,  for  accord- 
ing to  Vergerio  though  he  was  over  fifty,  he  looked 
only  forty.  But  his  costume  made  a  decidedly  bizarre 
impression  on  the  Italian,  who  wrote  a  friend : 

Because  it  was  Sunday,  the  crazy  man  wore  his  best 
clothes,  consisting  of  a  gown  of  dark  camel's-hair,  with 
sleeves  trimmed  with  satin,  and  a  rather  short  coat  of 
serge  bordered  with  fox-skin.  He  had  a  number  of  rings 
on  his  fingers,  a  heavy  gold  chain  around  his  neck,  and  a 
cap  on  his  head  such  as  priests  wear. 

The  personal  appearance  of  the  heretic  Vergerio 
described  as  follows: 

He  has  a  rather  coarse  face,  but  he  tries  to  give  it  as 
soft  and  sensitive  an  expression  as  possible.  His  speech 
is  moderately  rapid  and  not  much  roughened  by  German. 
His  Latin  is  so  poor  that  it  seems  clear  he  cannot  be  the 
author  of  the  books  which  go  by  his  name,  and  which 
have  a  certain  pure  flavor  of  Latinity  and  eloquence.  He 
confessed  himself  his  un familiarity  with  Latin,  but 
claimed  he  knew  well  how  to  talk  in  his  mother  tongue. 
His  eyes  are  wide  open,  and  the  more  I  looked  at  them 
the  more  I  felt  they  were  like  the  eyes  of  a  possessed  per- 
son I  once  saw,  fiery  and  restless,  betraying  the  delirium 
and  fury  within. 


POPE  PAUL  III 


From  a  carbon  print  by  Braun,  Clement  &  Cie. 
of  the  portrait  by  Titian 


RELIGION  AND  POLITICS  355 

From  the  legate's  report  of  the  interview  we  can  see 
that  Luther's  account  of  his  conduct  in  his  letter  to 
Jonas  was  not  overdrawn.  He  treated  the  Italian 
ecclesiastic  with  scant  courtesy,  and  said  all  he  could  to 
shock  him.  At  the  same  time,  to  Vergerio's  surprise 
he  promised  to  attend  the  council,  wherever  it  might  be 
held  and  whatever  the  danger  involved. 

In  February,  1537,  a  council  in  the  meantime  having 
been  actually  called  to  meet  at  Mantua,  representatives 
of  the  Schmalkald  league  gathered  at  Schmalkalden  to 
consider  what  attitude  to  take  in  the  matter.  The 
question  was  not  an  easy  one.  At  an  earlier  day  the 
evangelicals  had  frequently  demanded  a  general  coun- 
cil, where  their  positions  could  be  frankly  and  freely 
discussed,  but  the  pope  had  consistently  opposed  the 
plan.  Now  that  the  council  had  finally  been  sum- 
moned, they  could  with  ill  grace  decline  to  accept  an 
invitation  to  attend.  Though  Luther  would  have  been 
the  last  one  to  submit  his  teachings  to  its  judgment 
and  yield  obedience  to  its  decision,  believing  the  pope 
to  be  no  more  in  favor  of  such  an  assembly  than 
his  predecessors,  and  convinced,  rightly  as  the  event 
proved,  that  it  would  be  again  indefinitely  postponed, 
he  favored  accepting  the  invitation,  that  the  Protes- 
tants might  not  be  held  responsible  for  its  failure  to 
meet. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Elector  John  Frederick,  who 
had  succeeded  his  father  in  1532  and  was  an  even 
more  zealous  disciple  of  Luther  and  supporter  of  the 
new  faith,  was  quite  unwilling  to  follow  such  a  course. 
He  even  wished  to  hold  an  opposition  council  where 
Protestant  principles  might  find  public  and  authoritative 
expression  before  all  the  world.  True  to  his  general 
policy,  Luther  disapproved  this  aggressive  plan  as 
savoring  of  wanton  and  unnecessary  schism,  and  it  was 
finally,  though  reluctantly,  abandoned  by  the  elector. 


356  MARTIN  LUTHER 

That  the  reformer's  attitude  was  not  at  all  a  sign  of 
growing  friendliness  toward  Rome  is  shown  by  a  docu- 
ment which  he  drew  up  at  this  time  in  anticipation  of 
the  meeting  at  Schmalkalden.  It  was  prepared  at  the 
elector's  request  and  contained  a  statement  of  the 
matters  needing  to  be  maintained  at  any  cost  against 
the  Catholics.  Written  in  Luther's  usual  style,  it  was 
in  striking  contrast  with  the  Augsburg  Confession. 
The  differences  between  the  two  communions  were  set 
forth  in  sharp  and  uncompromising  fashion,  and  no 
effort  whatever  was  made  to  conciliate  opponents.  The 
elector  hoped  to  have  it  adopted  at  Schmalkalden,  but 
as  it  contained  characteristic  statements  about  the 
Lord's  Supper  calculated  to  alienate  the  sacramen- 
tarians  and  destroy  the  harmony  recently  established 
between  the  two  wings  of  German  Protestantism,  Me- 
lanchthon,  in  Luther's  absence,  succeeded  in  having 
it  shelved  altogether,  and  it  was  not  even  discussed  at 
the  conference.  Luther's  associates  were  so  careful  of 
his  feelings,  or  perhaps  so  afraid  of  his  wrath,  that 
they  apparently  never  told  him  of  its  fate.  At  any 
rate,  he  published  it  the  next  year  as  the  official  plat- 
form of  the  Schmalkald  league,  and  sometime  later  it 
attained  the  dignity  of  a  doctrinal  symbol  of  the 
Lutheran  church. 

Though  Luther  attended  the  conference  at  Schmal- 
kalden, in  company  with  Melanchthon  and  other  theo- 
logians, he  was  kept  from  active  participation  in  it  by 
a  serious  attack  of  illness  which  almost  cost  him  his 
life,  and  the  discussion  went  on  without  him.  In  his 
absence,  realizing  that  they  could  hope  for  nothing 
from  a  council  held  on  Italian  soil,  under  the  control 
of  the  pope,  and  unwilling  in  any  case,  at  the  advanced 
stage  the  new  movement  had  reached,  to  submit  it  to 
arbitration,  the  princes  finally  voted  to  decline  the  in- 


ELECTOR  JOHN  FREDERICK,   153! 

From  a  carbon  print  by  Braun,  Clement  &  Cie. 
of  the  portrait  by  Cranach 


RELIGION  AND  POLITICS  357 

vitation  and  go  their  own  independent  way.  The  act 
was  full  of  significance,  clearly  showing  that  they  no 
longer  regarded  their  churches  as  a  part  of  the  Roman 
communion  or  in  fellowship  writh  it. 

Meanwhile,  finding  his  long-cherished  plan  for  heal- 
ing the  religious  schism  in  Germany  completely  shat- 
tered, the  emperor  undertook  to  treat  with  the  Protes- 
tants on  his  own  account  and  to  discover  some  basis  of 
union  independent  of  the  pope.  In  1540  successive 
conferences  were  held  at  Hagenau  and  at  Worms,  and 
finally,  in  the  spring  of  1541,  at  Ratisbon,  where  an 
imperial  diet  was  in  session,  attended  by  the  emperor 
in  person. 

The  attitude  of  the  two  parties  had  completely 
changed  since  the  Diet  of  Augsburg.  There  the  evan- 
gelicals were  seeking  toleration  and  were  willing  to 
yield  much  for  the  sake  of  peace.  Now  the  overtures 
came  from  the  emperor,  while  the  leading  Protestants, 
including  even  Melanchthon,  were  disposed  to  hold 
back  and  doubt  the  possibility  of  an  agreement.  Never- 
theless after  a  number  of  interviews  between  Catholic 
and  Protestant  theologians,  Melanchthon  and  Bucer 
being  the  chief  spokesmen  of  the  latter,  a  preliminary 
agreement  was  reached  upon  a  number  of  points,  and 
it  seemed  to  many  as  if  a  satisfactory  basis  of  union 
might  at  length  be  found. 

Luther's  attitude  toward  the  negotiations  is  abun- 
dantly shown  in  the  following  passages  from  his  let- 
ters. To  the  Elector  Joachim  of  Brandenburg,  who 
had  sent  him  the  draft  of  a  document  which  it  was 
hoped  could  be  made  the  basis  of  an  agreement,  he 
wrote  on  the  twenty-first  of  February : 

I  have  read  the  document  carefully,  and  in  response  to 
your  Grace's  request  for  my  opinion,  I  beg  to  say  that, 
whoever  the  authors  are,  they  mean  very  well,  but  their 


358  MARTIN  LUTHER 

propositions  are  quite  impracticable,  and  cannot  be  ac- 
cepted by  pope,  cardinals,  and  bishops.  For  who  can 
compel  these  ecclesiastics,  since  the  pope  claims  to  be  free 
and  above  all  laws,  whether  old  or  new  ? 

In  truth,  gracious  sir,  it  is  vain  to  attempt  such  expe- 
dients and  compromises.  We  can  never  escape  the  pope 
and  his  train  until  God  is  allowed  to  finish  doing  what 
He  will  with  him.  For  everybody  knows  they  will  give 
up  nothing,  but  will  stand  where  they  are  and  keep  every- 
thing they  have. 

To  Chancellor  Brikk  he  wrote  on  the  fourth  of 
April : 

If  harmony  be  desired  in  religion,  the  beginning  must 
be  made  with  fundamentals  such  as  doctrine  and  sacra- 
ment. When  an  agreement  is  reached  in  these,  other  and 
indifferent  matters  will  take  care  of  themselves,  as  has 
happened  in  our  churches.  God  will  then  be  in  the  con- 
cord, and  quiet  and  peace  will  last.  But  if  essentials  are 
passed  by  and  unimportant  things  discussed,  God  is  for- 
gotten, and  if  peace  is  concluded  it  is  without  Him  and 
worse  than  none.  It  is  just  as  Christ  said :  "A  new  patch 
on  an  old  garment  only  makes  the  rent  worse,  and  the 
new  wine  bursts  the  old  wine-skins."  Either  make  the 
whole  thing  new,  or  let  the  rent  remain,  as  we  have  done. 
Otherwise  all  is  vain.  I  fear  the  landgrave  allows  him- 
self to  be  led  and  would  like  to  carry  us  all  with  him. 
But,  in  my  opinion,  he  has  already  dragged  us  far  enough 
in  his  business.  He  shall  drag  me  no  farther.  Rather  I 
will  take  the  whole  cause  again  on  my  own  shoulders  and 
stand  alone  as  in  the  beginning.  We  know  it  is  God's  af- 
fair. He  began  it,  He  has  himself  managed  it  hitherto,  and 
He  will  bring  it  to  completion.  Who  will  not  follow  Him 
may  remain  behind.  The  emperor,  the  Turks,  and  all  the 
devils  shall  win  nothing  here,  let  come  what  may.  I  am 
disgusted  to  see  them  treat  this  affair  as  if  it  were  a 
worldly,  imperial,  Turkish,  princely  matter,  wherein  hu- 


RELIGION  AND  POLITICS  359 

man  reason  is  to  decide  everything.  It  is  rather  an  affair 
wherein  God  and  the  devil  together  with  their  angels  are 
themselves  working.  Who  believes  it  not  will  accomplish 
nothing  good. 

The  same  day  he  wrote  Melanchthon : 

I  see  they  think  this  cause  is  a  sort  of  human  comedy, 
when  it  is  really  a  tragedy  between  God  and  Satan,  where 
Satan's  interests  flourish,  while  God's  decline.  But  a 
catastrophe  will  come,  as  always  since  the  beginning  of 
time,  and  the  omnipotent  Author  of  this  tragedy  will 
Himself  liberate  us.  I  write  in  anger  and  indignation  at 
their  wantonness  in  an  affair  like  this. 

In  June  he  wrote  his  friend  Link : 

I  have  heard  no  news  concerning  the  concord  between 
Christ  and  Belial  at  Ratisbon.  I  predicted  that  the  con- 
cord would  be  of  this  sort,  for  the  anger  of  God  has 
come  upon  the  papacy  and  the  hour  of  its  judgment  is  at 
hand. 

And  about  the  same  time  he  wrote  Melanchthon 
again : 

I  hope  you  will  soon  return,  for  it  is  in  vain  you  have 
been  there  and  negotiated  with  those  lost  souls. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  as  Luther  clearly  foresaw  would 
be. the  case,  all  the  negotiations  finally  proved  futile. 
Nothing  else  was  to  be  expected.  Even  had  an  agree- 
ment been  reached  upon  most  of  the  doctrines  and 
practises  in  dispute,  it  must  have  broken  down  because 
of  the  irreconcilable  difference  touching  the  authority 
of  the  Roman  church.  However  willing  the  conferees 
might  be  to  subscribe  to  ambiguous  statements  leaving 


360  MARTIN  LUTHER 

room  for  all  sorts  of  differences  of  opinion,  there  could 
be  no  compromise  at  this  point.  An  infallible  church, 
as  the  pope  himself  declared,  could  be  content  with 
nothing  less  than  complete  submission.  The  emperor 
hoped  the  differences  could  be  glossed  over,  in  the  inter- 
est of  peace  and  political  unity,  but  he  failed  to  realize 
the  radical  character  of  the  division,  and  all  his  efforts 
came  to  naught. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

THE  BIGAMY  OF  THE  LANDGRAVE  PHILIP 

JUST  when  the  Schmalkald  league  was  at  the  height 
of  its  power  an  incident  occurred  which  brought 
great  discredit  upon  the  Reformation  and  entailed 
very  disastrous  consequences — the  second  marriage  of 
the  Landgrave  Philip  of  Hesse.  Early  in  1540,  while 
his  wife  Christine,  daughter  of  the  recently  deceased 
Duke  George  of  Saxony,  was  still  living,  he  secretly 
married,  with  Christine's  consent,  Margaret  von  der 
Sale,  one  of  his  sister's  ladies-in-waiting.  By  the  law 
of  the  empire  bigamy  was  a  crime,  and  when  the  act 
became  known,  he  was  in  an  embarrassing  position, 
and  felt  obliged  to  protect  himself  by  making  con- 
cessions to  the  emperor,  which  seriously  hampered  his 
activities  and  permanently  weakened  the  Schmalkald 
league.  The  way  was  thus  paved  for  the  untoward 
defeat  of  1546,  from  which  Protestantism  never  fully 
recovered. 

Of  chief  interest  to  us  is  Luther's  connection  with 
the  unfortunate  affair.  Finding  Margaret's  mother 
unwilling  to  give  her  consent  to  the  irregular  marriage 
until  the  approval  of  the  elector  of  Saxony  and  of 
some  of  the  leading  Protestant  theologians  had  been 
secured,  Philip  laid  his  case  before  Luther  and  Me- 
lanchthon.  Concealing  his  main  reason  for  desiring 
their  assent,  he  informed  them  that  his  conscience, 
as  seems  really  to  have  been  the  case,  had  long  been 

361 


362  MARTIN  LUTHER 

seriously  troubled  by  the  flagrant  immorality  in  which 
he  had  been  living  for  many  years,  and  which  he  found 
it  quite  impossible  to  avoid  except  by  taking  another 
wife,  for  his  present  wife  was  not  only  repulsive  to 
him,  but  was  also  in  poor  health  and  unable  to  follow 
him  about  on  his  inevitable  journeys.  After  consider- 
able hesitation  the  reformers  finally  gave  their  consent 
on  condition  the  affair  be  kept  strictly  secret. 

Nearly  twenty  years  before  in  his  work  on  the 
"Babylonian  Captivity  of  the  Church"  Luther  had 
declared  bigamy  better  than  divorce.  In  1531,  when 
his  approval  was  sought  by  King  Henry  VIII  of  Eng- 
land for  his  divorce  from  Catharine  of  Aragon,  he 
emphatically  declined  to  give  it,  because  of  the  injus- 
tice to  wife  and  child.  At  the  same  time  he  suggested 
the  possibility  of  bigamy,  already  thought  of  by  Pope 
Clement  VII  as  a  conceivable  substitute  for  the  pro- 
jected divorce. 

Some  of  the  radical  Anabaptists  undertook  to  in- 
troduce polygamy,  appealing  to  the  patriarchal  order 
of  society  in  justification  of  their  position.  Even 
among  Luther's  followers  and  associates  there  was  no 
little  uncertainty  about  the  matter,  as  was  not  alto- 
gether surprising  when  the  old  order  of  things  was 
undergoing  revision  at  so  many  points,  including  the 
marriage  of  monks,  priests,  and  near  relatives.  But 
Luther  himself  was  unalterably  opposed  to  any  such 
revolution.  Monogamy  he  considered,  under  ordinary 
circumstances,  alone  tolerable  in  a  Christian  commu- 
nity, and  held  that  no  Christian  ruler  has  any  moral 
right  to  legalize  polygamy.  At  the  same  time,  finding 
no  explicit  prohibition  in  the  Bible,  he  believed  excep- 
tions might  be  allowed  in  certain  extreme  cases  such  as 
are  now  generally  recognized  in  Protestant  countries 
as  justifying  divorce. 


LANDGRAVE  PHILIP'S  BIGAMY       363 

Writing  Chancellor  Briick  about  the  matter  in  1524, 
he  said : 

I  confess  I  am  not  able  to  forbid  anybody  to  take  more 
than  one  wife  if  he  wishes  to  do  so,  nor  do  the  sacred 
Scriptures  forbid  him.  But  I  do  not  want  this  custom 
introduced  among  Christians,  for  it  behooves  them  to 
give  up  things  which  are  permitted,  that  scandal  may  be 
avoided  and  honorable  living  promoted,  as  Paul  every- 
where demands. 

And  in  1526,  when  asked  for  an  opinion  upon  the 
subject  by  the  Landgrave  Philip,  he  replied : 

It  is  my  earnest  warning  and  counsel  that  Christians 
especially  shall  have  no  more  than  one  wife,  not  only 
because  it  is  a  scandal,  which  a  Christian  should  avoid 
most  diligently,  but  also  because  there  is  no  word  of 
God  here  to  show  that  God  approves  it  in  Christians. 
Heathen  and  Turks  may  do  as  they  please.  Some  of  the 
patriarchs  had  many  wives,  but  they  acted  under  neces- 
sity, like  Abraham  and  Jacob ;  and  afterward  many  kings 
did  the  same,  inheriting  the  wives  of  their  friends  ac- 
cording to  the  Mosaic  law.  It  is  not  enough  for  the 
Christian  to  appeal  to  the  conduct  of  the  fathers.  As 
they  had,  he  too  must  have  a  divine  word  for  what  he 
does  to  make  him  certain.  For  where  no  necessity  ex- 
isted, the  patriarchs  had  only  one  wife,  like  Isaac,  Joseph, 
Moses,  and  many  others.  Therefore  I  cannot  advise  it. 
On  the  contrary,  I  must  oppose  it,  especially  in  Chris- 
tians, unless  there  be  need,  as  for  instance  if  the  wife  be 
a  leper,  or  be  taken  away  from  the  husband  in  some  other 
way. 

When  Philip  appealed  to  him  in  1540  he  was  moved 
by  the  landgrave's  representations  of  his  moral  condi- 
tion and  distress  of  conscience  to  think  this  a  case  in 
which  an  exception  might  fairly  be  made.  More  se- 


364  MARTIN  LUTHER 

vere  in  his  condemnation  of  sexual  irregularity  than 
the  common  opinion  of  his  day,  to  continue  in  sin 
seemed  worse  than  to  take  a  second  wife,  and  he 
advised  the  prince  accordingly.  He  was  quite  aware 
that  he  could  not  suspend  the  law  of  the  realm  in 
Philip's  favor,  and  make  a  legal  marriage  of  an  illicit 
relation  by  any  dispensation  he  might  give.  Assuming 
the  role  of  a  father  confessor,  already  familiar  to  him 
for  nearly  thirty  years,  he  simply  undertook  to  relieve 
the  landgrave's  burdened  conscience  by  pronouncing 
his  secret  union  with  another  woman  justifiable  in 
the  sight  of  God.  In  the  sight  of  others,  he  insisted, 
the  union  could  be  nothing  but  concubinage,  and  for 
Philip  publicly  to  treat  a  concubine  as  a  wife,  and  to 
claim  he  was  legally  married  to  her,  would  be  a  wan- 
ton defiance  of  the  law  of  the  realm.  Rather  than  con- 
sent to  such  a  course  he  would  withdraw  his  dispensa- 
tion and  openly  acknowledge  he  had  played  the  fool  in 
giving  what  he  had  no  right  to  give.  All  through  he 
was  moved  not  by  personal  considerations,  but  by  a 
mistaken  regard,  at  first  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of 
the  landgrave,  and  afterward  for  the  public  good. 

It  was  of  course  of  the  very  essence  of  such  a  rela- 
tion that  it  be  kept  secret,  and  when  Philip  was  dis- 
posed to  let  it  be  publicly  known,  in  order  to  save  the 
reputation  of  his  new  bride,  Luther  objected  strenu- 
ously, exhorting  him  to  deny  it  flatly,  if  taxed  with  it, 
and  declaring  he  would  not  hesitate  to  do  the  same. 

The  proposed  denial  of  the  marriage,  which  seems 
to  throw  so  sinister  a  light  upon  the  whole  affair,  Lu- 
ther justified  somewhat  sophistically  by  an  appeal  to 
the  traditional  maxim  of  the  inviolability  of  the  con- 
fessional, requiring  the  priest,  if  necessary,  to  tell  an 
untruth  rather  than  divulge  its  secrets.  He  justified  it 
also  by  the  more  fundamental  principle  that  the  su- 


LANDGRAVE    PHILIP  OF  HESSE  IN  1534 

From  a  woodcut  of  Hans  Brosamer  after  an  engraving 
by  Lucas  Cranach 


LANDGRAVE  PHILIP'S  BIGAMY       365 

preme  ethical  motive  is  regard  for  our  neighbor's  good, 
and  it  is  better  to  lie  than  to  do  him  harm.  To  this 
principle,  taught  by  not  a  few  ethical  teachers  of  our 
own  as  well  as  other  ages,  he  gave  frequent  expression. 
After  rumors  of  the  marriage  had  got  abroad,  Me- 
lanchthon  was  almost  beside  himself  with  mortifica- 
tion, and  a  serious  illness  into  which  he  fell  on  his  way 
to  Hagenau,  in  the  summer  of  1540,  was  attributed  by 
him  and  his  friends  to  remorse  over  his  part  in  the 
unsavory  affair.  Luther  took  it  more  coolly,  as  was 
to  be  expected.  When  the  news  of  Melanchthon's  ill- 
ness reached  him  he  remarked : 

Philip  is  almost  consumed  with  grief,  and  has  fallen 
into  a  tertian  fever.  Why  does  the  good  man  so  torment 
himself  over  this  affair?  He  cannot  mend  it  by  his  solici- 
tude. I  wish  I  were  with  him.  I  know  the  softness  of 
his  genius.  He  sorrows  too  deeply  over  this  scandal.  I 
have  a  thick  skin  for  things  of  this  kind ;  I  am  a  peasant 
and  a  hard  Saxon.  I  believe  I  am  called  to  go  to  him. 
.  .  .  It  is  fine  when  we  have  something  to  do ;  then  we 
have  ideas.  At  other  times  we  only  guzzle  and  gorge. 
How  our  papists  will  exult!  But  let  them  exult  to  their 
own  destruction.  Our  cause  is  good  and  our  life  guilt- 
less, for  we  are  of  those  who  act  seriously.  If  the  Mace- 
donian has  sinned,  it  is  a  sin  and  a  scandal.  We  have 
given  him  over  and  over  again  the  best  and  most  holy 
answers.  Our  innocence  they  will  see,  but  they  have  not 
wished  to  see  it. 

Writing  to  Melanchthon  on  the  eighteenth  of  June 
he  said : 

I  beseech  you  through  Christ  be  of  an  easy  and  quiet 
mind.  Let  them  do  whatever  they  want  to  and  let  them 
bear  their  own  burdens  and  not  accuse  us  alone;  for 
knowing  us  to  be  candid  and  sincere  they  cannot  convict 
us  of  any  crime  except  a  too  facile  pity  and  humanity. 


366  MARTIN  LUTHER 

Believing  he  had  acted  in  good  faith,  even  though 
foolishly,  Luther  cared  little  for  the  loss  of  reputation 
involved.  He  did  deeply  regret  the  harm  done  the 
cause,  as  many  utterances  show,  but  even  this  he  com- 
forted himself  by  throwing  off  upon  the  Lord,  as  was 
his  wont. 

If  any  one  asks,  "Does  the  affair  please  you?"  I  answer, 
"No,  if  I  were  able  to  change  it;  but  since  I  cannot,  I 
bear  it  with  a  tranquil  mind."  I  commend  it  to  the  dear 
God.  He  will  preserve  His  church  as  it  now  stands  that 
it  may  remain  in  unity  of  faith  and  doctrine  and  in  whole- 
some confession  of  the  word.  If  it  only  does  not  become 
worse !  I  would  not  so  please  the  devil  and  all  the  papists 
as  to  bother  myself  about  the  matter.  God  will  make  it 
all  right.  To  Him  we  commend  the  whole  cause. 

The  unfortunate  experience  did  not  lead  Luther  to 
abandon  the  principles  which  had  governed  his  treat- 
ment of  the  landgrave's  case,  nor  did  he  ever  admit  he 
had  done  wrong  in  advising  Philip  as  he  had.  At  the 
same  time,  in  replying  to  a  book  in  defense  of  polyg- 
amy, published  in  1541  by  a  subservient  Hessian 
clergyman  who  wrote  under  the  pseudonym  of  Neobu- 
lus,  he  used  language  which  showed  he  was  sensitive 
upon  the  subject  and  felt  special  need  of  reiterating  his 
belief  in  the  illegality  of  polygamy.  "Whoever,"  he 
exclaimed,  "following  this  scoundrel  and  his  book, 
takes  more  than  one  wife,  and  wishes  to  give  it  the 
sanction  of  law,  may  the  devil  bless  him  with  a  bath  in 
the  abyss  of  hell !  Amen.  This,  God  be  praised,  I 
know  well  how  to  maintain  even  if  it  were  to  snow, 
nothing  but  Neobuli  and  devils  a  whole  year  long.  No 
one  shall  make  me  a  law  out  of  it.  That  I  will  not 
permit." 

Regarded  from  any  point  of  view,  the  landgrave's 


From  a  photograph  by  the  Berlin  Photographic  Co.  of  the  painting  by  Lucas  Cranach 
MARTIN  LUTHER  IN  1533 


LANDGRAVE  PHILIP'S  BIGAMY       367 

bigamy  was  a  disgraceful  affair,  and  Luther's  consent 
the  gravest  blunder  of  his  career.  He  acted  conscien- 
tiously, but  with  a  lamentable  want  of  moral  discern- 
ment and  a  singular  lack  of  penetration  and  foresight. 
To  approve  a  relationship  so  derogatory  to  the  women 
involved,  and  so  subversive  of  the  most  sacred  safe- 
guards of  society,  showed  too  little  fineness  of  moral 
feeling  and  sureness  of  moral  conviction;  while  to  be 
so  easily  duped  by  the  dissolute  prince  was  no  more 
creditable  to  his  perspicacity  than  thinking  such  an 
affair  could  be  kept  secret  to  his  sagacity. 

It  was  a  case  where  personal  liking  and  undue  re- 
gard for  the  success  of  the  cause  warped  his  judgment 
and  blinded  his  usually  keen  sight.  Though  he  dis- 
approved many  of  Philip's  acts,  the  brilliant  and 
aggressive  personality  of  the  prince  always  attracted 
him,  and  made  him  more  compliant  than  it  was  his 
habit  to  be;  while  the  landgrave's  threat  to  appeal  to 
the  pope  for  the  needed  dispensation,  if  the  reformers 
refused  their  consent,  alarmed  him  for  the  credit  of 
Protestantism  and  the  fortunes  of  the  Schmalkald 
league. 

If  Luther's  attitude  after  the  affair  was  over  was 
thoroughly  characteristic,  his  yielding  to  the  land- 
grave's request  in  the  beginning  was  quite  unlike  him. 
Fully  to  explain  it,  account  must  be  taken  of  his  train- 
ing as  a  priest  and  of  his  long  experience  as  a  pastoral 
guide.  Holding  bigamy  not  to  be  wrong  in  itself,  else 
God  had  not  permitted  it  to  Abraham,  his  concern  for 
the  conscientious  scruples  of  the  landgrave  and  for  the 
salvation  of  his  soul  could  blind  him  to  other  evils  of 
far  greater  consequence.  It  was  not  the  only  time  his 
professional  training  and  career  narrowed  his  vision 
and  hindered  his  usefulness  as  a  reformer. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

THE  END  AND  AFTER 

THE  evening  of  Luther's  life  set  in  early.  Though 
only  forty-six  years  of  age  when  the  Diet  of 
Augsburg  met  in  1530,  he  thought  of  himself  after 
that  time  as  an  old  man,  and  until  his  death,  in  1546, 
lived  in  almost  constant  expectation  of  the  end.  The 
heroic  period  of  his  life,  when  with  prophetic  inspira- 
tion he  was  proclaiming  a  new  gospel,  and  with  the 
enthusiasm  of  an  apostle  was  daily  braving  death  for 
his  faith,  was  long  past.  Successful  in  breaking  the 
control  of  the  pope  over  a  large  part  of  Germany,  his 
victory,  in  freeing  him  from  danger,  deprived  him  of 
the  excitement  incident  thereto,  and  left  him  no  em- 
ployment adequate  to  his  powers. 

His  health,  too,  was  very  poor,  and  he  suffered  much 
from  all  sorts  of  ailments.  Possessed  of  a  naturally 
vigorous  constitution,  his  tremendous  labors  and  care- 
less way  of  living  brought  on  grave  troubles  at  an  early 
day,  from  which  he  was  never  afterward  wholly  free. 
Indigestion  was  almost  a  lifelong  burden.  Serious 
kidney  affections  again  and  again  caused  him  acute 
suffering.  Gout,  rheumatism,  sciatica,  asthma,  and 
catarrh  were  frequent  plagues.  For  many  years  he 
was  afflicted  with  well-nigh  uninterrupted  headaches, 
and  a  good  night's  sleep  was  a  rare  luxury.  After 
1530  his  letters  contain  many  references  to  weakness 
of  the  heart,  severe  attacks  of  vertigo,  and  continual 

368 


THE  END  AND  AFTER  369 

buzzing  in  the  ears.  During  the  last  ten  years  of  his 
life  his  physicians  were  in  constant  expectation  of  a 
stroke  of  apoplexy.  Most  of  the  time  he  was  living, 
so  everybody  recognized,  at  the  limit  of  his  strength, 
liable  to  break  at  any  moment. 

More  and  more,  as  time  passed,  he  withdrew  from 
active  participation  in  the  laborious  work  of  organiz- 
ing and  visiting  the  new  churches,  and  left  that  task 
to  others.  Conferences  of  various  sorts  were  contin- 
ually held,  but  it  came  to  be  an  understood  thing  that 
some  other  Wittenberg  divine  should  attend  in  his 
place,  and  only  in  cases  of  grave  importance  was  his 
presence  expected.  Upon  his  colleague  Melanchthon 
the  chief  responsibility  fell  for  this  kind  of  work. 
That  he  found  it  no  light  matter  is  shown  by  his 
pathetic  remark,  on  setting  out  for  Hagenau  in  the 
summer  of  1540,  "We  have  lived  in  synods,  and  in 
them  we  shall  die." 

In  February,  1537,  at  the  Schmalkald  conference, 
Luther  was  seized  in  the  midst  of  the  negotiations 
with  a  severe  attack  of  his  old  enemy  the  stone,  and 
for  some  days  his  life  was  despaired  of.  Loath  to 
expire  under  the  eyes  of  the  papal  legate  present  at 
Schmalkalden,  he  begged  to  be  sent  home  to  die;  but 
on  the  way  his  sufferings  were  relieved,  and  though 
recovery  was  slow,  before  the  end  of  the  spring  he 
was  once  more  in  comparatively  good  health.  The 
whole  year,  however,  was  marked  by  more  than  usual 
weakness,  and  his  literary  output  was  smaller  than  at 
any  time  since  1516. 

He  did  not  make  light  of  his  maladies  and  suffer- 
ings. On  the  contrary,  he  expected  to  die  whenever 
he  felt  particularly  miserable,  except  now  and  then 
when  he  was  sure  his  life  would  be  preserved  to  finish 
some  special  piece  of  work,  or,  it  might  be,  to  spite  the 

'  24 


370  MARTIN  LUTHER 

papists.  Seeing  in  every  pain  and  discomfort  the 
direct  assaults  of  Satan,  he  got  a  religious  satisfaction 
out  of  them  not  shared  by  everybody.  But  with  all 
his  belief  in  their  supernatural  origin  he  faithfully 
took  the  many  vile  and  powerful  remedies  all  too 
freely  prescribed  to  him,  and  when  asked  if  it  were  not 
ungodly  to  do  so,  as  Carlstadt  claimed,  he  replied :  "Do 
you  eat  when  you  are  hungry?  If  you  do,  you  may 
also  use  medicine,  which  is  God's  creature  as  truly  as 
food  and  drink  and  whatever  else  we  need  for  sustain- 
ing life." 

In  constant  expectation  of  death,  as  he  was  for 
many  years,  he  was  in  no  fear  of  it.  When  the  uni- 
versity on  a  number  of  occasions  moved  temporarily 
to  some  other  place,  on  account  of  the  plague  with 
which  Wittenberg  was  frequently  visited,  he  always 
remained  behind,  despite  the  protests  of  colleagues  and 
friends,  and  ministered  to  the  people  more  actively 
than  ever.  In  1527  he  did  manful  labor  in  the  midst 
of  the  worst  epidemic  experienced  during  that  genera- 
tion, and  in  the  summer  of  1535,  when  the  rumor  got 
abroad  that  the  pest  was  raging  in  Wittenberg,  he 
wrote  the  elector  in  the  following  humorous  vein : 

Your  Grace's  chancellor,  Dr.  Briick,  has  told  me  of 
your  Grace's  kind  invitation,  if  the  plague  should  be- 
come bad  here.  I  thank  your  Grace  sincerely  for  your 
thoughtful  proposal,  and  will  let  you  know  if  things  get 
serious.  But  the  bailiff  Hans  Metzsch  is  my  trusty  wea- 
thercock. He  has  a  regular  vulture's  scent  for  the  pesti- 
lence, and  would  smell  it  if  it  were  five  cubits  under 
ground.  While  he  remains  in  town  I  cannot  believe  the 
pest  is  here.  It  is  true  one  or  two  houses  have  had  ill- 
ness, but  the  air  is  not  yet  poisoned,  for  there  have  been 
no  deaths  and  no  new  cases  since  Tuesday.  However,  as 
the  dog-days  are  at  hand  and  the  young  fellows  are 


MARTIN   LUTHER 
Painted  in  the  year  he  died  by  Lucas  Cranach 


THE  END  AND  AFTER  371 

frightened,  I  have  given  them  a  holiday  to  quiet  their 
fears  until  we  see  what  is  to  happen.  I  notice  they  are 
pleased  enough  over  such  alarms,  for  some  of  them  catch 
boils  from  their  school  bags,  some  the  colic  from  their 
books,  some  the  scurvy  from  their  pens,  and  some  the 
gout  from  their  papers.  Others  have  found  their  ink 
moldy,  or  have  devoured  their  mothers'  letters  and  caught 
homesickness  from  them.  There  may  be  more  of  this 
kind  of  weakness  than  I  can  say.  No  doubt  there  is  dan- 
ger, if  parents  and  magistrates  don't  come  to  the  rescue 
with  every  possible  remedy,  of  a  high  rate  of  mortality 
from  such  diseases,  until  we  shall  have  no  preachers,  pas- 
tors, or  teachers,  but  only  hogs  and  dogs,  which  is  what 
the  papists  are  industriously  working  for. 

About  the  same  time  he  wrote  a  Torgau  friend : 

I  wish  my  letter  might  at  least  reach  Torgau,  for  your 
city  is  so  terribly  afraid  of  us  Wittenbergers.  Your  fear, 
indeed,  is  well  justified,  for  yesterday  a  whole  child  died 
here,  so  that  there  was  not  left  a  live  hair  on  its  body,  and 
four  children  were  born.  I  fancy  the  devil  is  holding 
carnival  with  such  vain  alarms,  or  a  kermess  is  going  on 
in  hell,  that  he  should  be  so  greedy  of  ghosts. 

Reading  his  letters  to  intimate  friends,  we  get  the 
impression  that  he  must  have  been  wholly  incapaci- 
tated during  most  of  his  later  life ;  but  the  products  of 
his  toil  still  exist  to  prove  us  mistaken.  He  found  it 
increasingly  difficult  to  work  in  the  morning,  and  his 
regular  hours  of  labor  grew  shorter  and  shorter.  Yet 
he  continued  to  accomplish  an  amount  of  work  that 
would  have  taxed  the  powers  of  most  men  in  perfect 
health.  When  not  actually  on  his  back  he  was  com- 
monly lecturing  twice  a  day  and  preaching  three  or 
four  times  a  week,  and  in  1537  Chancellor  Brikk,  who 
heard  him  frequently,  reported  to  the  elector  that  he 


372  MARTIN  LUTHER 

had  never  preached  with  such  power  and  effectiveness. 
He  also  kept  up  his  writing  and  publishing,  pouring 
forth  from  the  hundreds  of  presses  which  Wittenberg 
now  boasted,  as  against  the  one  when  he  began  his 
work,  polemic  and  other  pamphlets  and  books,  if  not 
in  the  same  profusion  as  formerly,  still  in  very  respect- 
able numbers. 

In  1545,  the  year  before  his  death,  he  was  almost  as 
active  with  his  pen  as  ever,  making  new  literary  plans, 
and  writing  against  his  old  enemies  the  papists  as 
eagerly  and  vigorously  as  in  earlier  days.  There  is 
little  sign  of  flagging  powers  in  these  later  writings. 
The  same  Luther  still  speaks  in  them,  with  all  the  raci- 
ness  and  humor,  biting  satire  and  coarse  vituperation, 
of  his  best  days. 

The  daily  burden  of  correspondence  was  also  enor- 
mous, having  grown  steadily  with  the  years.  There 
are  extant  more  than  three  thousand  letters  from  his 
pen,  half  of  them  dating  after  1530,  and  how  small  a 
proportion  they  are  of  those  he  actually  wrote  is 
shown,  for  instance,  by  his  reference  to  ten  letters 
written  one  evening  in  1544,  only  two  of  which  have 
been  preserved.  All  sorts  of  questions,  important  and 
unimportant,  were  laid  before  him  by  Protestants  in 
every  part  of  the  world.  If  a  parish  anywhere  in 
northern  Germany  was  without  a  minister,  or  a  clergy- 
man without  a  position,  he  was  immediately  appealed 
to  for  assistance.  His  aid  was  likewise  sought  even 
in  cases  unrelated  to  religion.  He  was  asked  to  inter- 
cede for  persons  who  had  suffered  injustice  from  the 
civil  authorities,  or  thought  they  had ;  to  patch  up  quar- 
rels between  great  folk  and  small;  to  recommend 
needy  people  to  the  elector,  or  it  might  be  to  some 
other  prince;  to  write  letters  of  comfort  to  mourners 
he  had  never  even  seen.  Most  troublesome  of  all  were 


THE  END  AND  AFTER  373 

the  innumerable  marriage  cases  which  he  had  to  deal 
with.  They  cost  him  an  infinite  amount  of  annoyance 
and  worry,  and  hundreds  of  memoranda  and  letters. 

Despite  the  multiplicity  of  his  occupations,  his  clos- 
ing years  were  far  from  happy.  As  time  passed,  he 
became  more  censorious,  impatient,  and  bitter.  He 
seems  to  have  been  troubled  less  frequently  than  in 
earlier  life  with  doubts  as  to  his  own  spiritual  condi- 
tion and  divine  mission,  but  he  grew  correspondingly 
despondent  over  the  results  of  his  labors  and  the  un- 
worthiness  of  his  followers.  Instead  of  finding  the 
world  transformed  into  a  paradise  by  his  gospel,  he 
saw  things  continuing  much  as  before,  and  his  heart 
grew  sick  with  disappointment.  The  first  flush  of 
enthusiasm  passed,  and  the  joy  of  battle  gone,  he  had 
time  to  observe  the  results  of  his  work,  and  they  were 
by  no  means  to  his  liking.  He  never  doubted  the  truth 
of  the  gospel  he  preached,  but  he  despaired  more  and 
more  of  the  possibility  of  making  the  world  better, 
falling  back,  as  Jesus  had  done  before  him,  upon  the 
approaching  end  of  the  world,  when  the  Son  of  man 
would  appear  in  glory  and  smite  his  enemies  with  the 
rod  of  his  wrath. 

Conditions  even  in  Wittenberg  itself  were  little  to 
his  liking.  In  this  center  of  gospel  light  he  felt  there 
should  be  a  devotion  and  purity  seen  nowhere  else. 
Instead,  as  the  town  grew  in  size  and  importance,  and 
manners  lost  somewhat  of  their  earlier  simplicity,  it 
seemed  to  his  exaggerated  sensibilities  that  everything 
was  going  rapidly  to  the  bad. 

In  the  summer  of  1545,  his  health  being  particularly 
poor,  he  left  Wittenberg  for  a  few  weeks,  seeking 
change  and  rest.  As  often  happens  when  away  from 
home,  conditions  began  to  look  blacker  to  him  than 
ever.  All  sorts  of  tales  were  told  him  by  officious  busy- 


374  MARTIN  LUTHER 

bodies.  As  a  result  he  fell  into  a  state  of  disgust,  to 
which  the  following  letter  to  his  wife,  written  from 
Leipsic  late  in  July,  bears  abundant  testimony : 

Grace  and  peace,  Dear  Kathe.  Hans  will  tell  you  all 
about  our  trip,  though  I  am  not  yet  certain  whether  he 
will  remain  with  me.  If  he  does,  Dr.  Caspar  Cruciger 
and  Ferdinand  will  tell  you.  Ernest  von  Schonf  eld  enter- 
tained us  finely  at  Lobnitz,  and  Henry  Scherle  still  more 
finely  at  Leipsic.  I  should  be  very  glad  if  I  could  arrange 
not  to  return  to  Wittenberg.  My  heart  has  grown  cold, 
so  that  I  no  longer  like  to  be  there.  I  wish  you  would 
sell  garden  and  land,  house  and  farm.  The  large  house 
I  should  like  to  give  back  to  my  gracious  lord,  and  you 
would  do  best  to  settle  at  Zulsdorf  while  I  am  still  alive 
and  able  to  help  you  improve  the  place,  with  the  salary 
which  I  hope  my  gracious  lord  will  continue  to  me  for  at 
least  the  closing  year  of  my  life.  After  my  death  the 
four  elements  will  hardly  endure  you  at  Wittenberg.  So 
it  were  better  to  do  while  I  am  alive  what  would  have  to 
be  done  afterward  anyway.  Perhaps  Wittenberg,  as  is 
fitting  with  its  present  regime,  will  catch  not  St.  Vitus's 
or  St.  John's  dance,  but  the  beggars'  or  Beelzebub's  dance. 
For  matrons  and  maidens  have  begun  to  expose  their 
persons  in  a  shameless  way,  while  there  is  no  one  to  pun- 
ish and  hinder  them,  and  God's  word  is  mocked.  Away 
from  this  Sodom!  I  have  heard  more  in  the  country 
than  I  knew  about  in  Wittenberg.  I  have  consequently 
tired  of  the  town,  and  will  not  return,  God  helping  me. 
Day  after  to-morrow  I  go  to  Merseburg,  for  Prince 
George  has  urgently  invited  me.  So  I  will  travel  about 
and  eat  the  bread  of  beggars  before  I  will  martyr  and 
plague  my  poor  old  remaining  days  with  the  disorderly 
doings  at  Wittenberg,  to  the  sacrifice  of  my  hard  and 
costly  labors.  If  you  wish,  tell  Dr.  Bugenhagen  and  Mas- 
ter Philip  of  my  determination,  and  ask  the  former  to  say 
farewell  to  Wittenberg  in  my  name,  for  I  cannot  longer 
endure  the  anger  and  displeasure.  Herewith  I  commend 
you  to  God.  Amen. 


•       J  J  J  » 


From  the  painting  by  Titian 
CHARLES  V,   KING  OF  SPAIN  AND  EMPEROR  OF  GERMANY 


THE  END  AND  AFTER  375 

It  was  not  the  first  time  Luther  had  thought  of  leav- 
ing Wittenberg.  Only  a  year  before,  annoyed  by  dis- 
agreements in  the  university,  he  had  with  difficulty 
been  dissuaded  from  turning  his  back  upon  the  place 
forever.  The  renewal  of  the  plan  threw  Melanchthon 
and  other  friends  into  a  fit  of  consternation.  A  dele- 
gation was  immediately  sent  after  him  with  urgent 
messages  from  the  university  and  from  the  elector  as 
well.  The  angry  man  was  finally  pacified,  and  before 
the  end  of  August  returned  home  to  take  up  his  accus- 
tomed duties.  We  have  no  evidence  that  such  despon- 
dency troubled  him  again,  but  late  in  November  he 
closed  his  last  course  of  university  lectures  with  the 
words:  "This  completes  the  dear  book  of  Genesis. 
Our  Lord  God  grant  that  others  may  do  it  better  after 
me.  I  can  do  no  more ;  I  am  weak.  Pray  for  me  that 
He  will  give  me  a  good  and  blessed  end !" 

A  few  weeks  later  he  wrote  a  friend :  "Old,  decrepit, 
lazy,  worn  out,  cold,  and  now  one-eyed,  I  write,  my 
Jacob,  I  who  hoped  that  there  might  at  length  be 
granted  to  me,  already  dead,  a  well-earned  rest.  As 
if  I  had  never  accomplished,  written,  said,  or  done 
anything,  I  am  overwhelmed  with  writing,  speaking, 
undertaking,  and  completing  things.  But  Christ  is  all 
in  all,  powerful  and  efficient,  blessed  forever.  Amen." 

In  December,  in  company  with  Melanchthon,  he 
visited  Mansfeld,  his  boyhood  home,  in  response  to  an 
invitation  from  the  Mansfeld  counts,  who  desired  the 
good  offices  of  the  Wittenberg  theologians  in  settling 
a  dispute  of  long  standing.  Before  the  end  of  the 
year  he  was  obliged  to  return  without  accomplishing 
his  mission;  but  late  in  January,  despite  his  poor 
health  and  the  inclemency  of  the  weather,  he  made 
the  journey  again,  this  time  to  the  neighboring  city  of 
Eisleben.  Melanchthon  being  too  ill  to  leave  home, 


376  MARTIN  LUTHER 

Luther  was  accompanied  by  his  friend  Justus  Jonas 
and  by  his  three  sons,  who  went  with  him  to  visit  their 
relatives  in  Mans f eld.  From  Halle  he  wrote  his  wife 
on  the  twenty-fifth  of  January : 

At  eight  o'clock  to-day  we  arrived  at  Halle,  but  did  not 
go  on  to  Eisleben,  for  there  met  us  a  great  Anabaptist, 
with  waves  and  ice-floes,  which  covered  the  whole  land 
and  threatened  us  with  rebaptism.  We  could  not  turn 
back  because  of  the  Mulde,  and  so  had  to  lie  still  at  Halle 
between  the  waters.  Not  that  we  thirsted  after  them.  On 
the  contrary,  we  took  good  Torgau  beer  and  good  Rhine 
wine  instead,  refreshing  and  comforting  ourselves  with 
them  while  we  waited  to  see  whether  the  Saale  would 
again  break  out  in  wrath.  As  the  drivers  and  attendants 
as  well  as  we  were  timid,  we  did  not  care  to  trust  our- 
selves to  the  waters  and  tempt  God.  For  the  devil  has  a. 
grudge  against  us  and  dwells  in  the  water  and  is  better 
avoided  than  provoked.  Nor  is  it  necessary  to  give  the 
pope  and  his  scum  a  fool's  pleasure.  I  did  not  suppose 
the  Saale  could  boil  in  such  a  fashion  and  rush  pell-mell 
over  stone  walls  and  everything.  No  more  now;  but 
pray  for  us  and  keep  pious.  I  believe,  had  you  been  here, 
you  would  have  advised  us  to  do  just  what  we  have  done, 
and  so  we  should  have  followed  your  counsel  yet  once 
again. 

Upon  reaching  Eisleben,  he  wrote  Melanchthon : 

On  the  way  here  I  was  seized  with  vertigo  and  with 
the  illness  you  are  accustomed  to  call  a  tremor  of  the 
heart.  Walking  beyond  my  strength,  I  fell  into  a  sweat 
and  afterward,  as  I  was  sitting  in  the  wagon  in  my  damp 
shirt,  the  cold  seized  upon  the  muscle  of  my  left  arm. 
The  consequence  was  compression  of  the  heart  and  suffo- 
cation in  breathing,  which  is  the  fault  of  my  age.  Now 
I  am  well  enough,  but  how  long  I  shall  remain  so  I  don't 
know,  for  old  age  is  not  to  be  trusted. 


THE  END  AND  AFTER  377 

The  same  day  he  wrote  Kathe : 

Grace  and  peace  in  Christ,  and  my  poor  old  love,  impo- 
tent as  I  know  it  is,  dear  Kathe.  I  was  seized  with  weak- 
ness just  before  reaching  Eisleben  by  my  own  fault.  But 
if  you  had  been  there,  you  would  have  laid  it  to  the  Jews 
or  their  God,  for  we  had  to  pass  through  a  near-by  vil- 
lage where  many  Jews  lived.  Perhaps  they  blew  hard  on 
me.  Here  in  Eisleben,  too,  there  are  more  than  fifty  of 
them  now  resident.  True  it  is,  as  I  was  near  the  village, 
such  a  cold  wind  blew  from  behind  upon  my  head, 
through  my  cap,  that  my  skull  was  almost  turned  to  ice. 
This  perhaps  contributed  to  my  vertigo.  But  now,  God 
be  thanked!  I  am  in  good  condition,  only  the  beautiful 
women  so  tempt  me  that  I  neither  shrink  from  nor  fear 
any  unchastity. 

In  Eisleben  he  lodged  in  the  house  of  an  old  friend, 
the  town  clerk,  where  he  was  shown  every  attention 
and  carefully  watched  over  as  an  ill  and  infirm  man. 
Jonas  and  others  slept  in  the  same  room  with  him,  and 
he  was  never  without  some  one  close  at  hand.  He 
had  frequent  attacks  of  weakness,  obliging  him  to 
resort  to  powerful  stimulants,  as  often  in  Wittenberg, 
but  he  slept  well  at  night,  and  on  the  whole  was  fairly 
comfortable. 

The  business  which  had  called  him  to  Eisleben 
proved  very  annoying  and  cost  a  great  deal  of  time  and 
labor.  On  the  sixth  of  February  he  wrote  Melanch- 
thon: 

Here  we  sit,  lazy  and  busy  at  once,  my  Philip— lazy,  for 
we  accomplish  nothing ;  busy,  because  we  suffer  infinitely, 
being  exercised  by  the  iniquity  of  Satan.  Among  so  many 
ways  we  strike  upon  one  which  offers  hope.  This  again 
Satan  obstructs.  Then  we  enter  upon  another,  thinking 
the  whole  thing  finished.  Once  more  Satan  sets  up  an 
obstacle.  A  third  has  been  attempted  which  seems  most 


378  MARTIN  LUTHER 

sure  and  quite  unable  to  fail.  But  the  event  will  prove 
the  fact.  I  beg  you  to  ask  Dr.  Pontanus  to  request  the 
prince  to  call  me  home  for  some  important  reason,  that 
in  this  way  I  may  be  able  to  force  them  to  reach  an  agree- 
ment. For  I  feel  they  will  not  suffer  me  to  depart  while 
affairs  are  still  unsettled.  I  will  give  them  yet  a  week. 
After  that  I  want  to  be  threatened  by  letters  from  the 
prince.  To-day  is  almost  the  tenth  since  we  began  upon 
the  dispute  about  the  new  city.  I  believe  it  could  be  built 
with  much  less  trouble.  Distrust  is  so  great  on  both  sides 
that  every  syllable  is  suspected  of  containing  poison.  You 
might  think  it  a  war  or  a  mania  of  words.  This  we  have 
to  thank  the  lawyers  for.  They  have  taught  and  still 
teach  the  world  so  many  equivocations,  contradictions, 
and  calumnies,  that  their  speech  is  more  confused  than 
the  whole  of  Babel ;  for  there  no  one  was  able  to  under- 
stand any  one  else ;  here  no  one  wants  to.  O  sycophants, 
O  sophists,  O  pests  of  the  human  race ! 

Three  days  later  he  wrote  Kathe  again : 

Grace  and  peace  in  Christ,  most  holy  Frau  Doctor.  We 
thank  you  most  heartily  for  your  great  anxiety  which 
keeps  you  from  sleeping.  For  since  you  began  worrying 
about  us  a  fire  in  our  lodging,  just  before  my  door,  almost 
devoured  us.  And  yesterday,  without  doubt  because  of 
your  care,  a  stone  fell  straight  upon  my  crown  and  was 
crushed  as  if  in  a  mouse-trap.  Plaster  and  lime  were 
dripping  overhead  in  my  chamber  for  two  days,  till  I 
summoned  some  men,  who  moved  the  stone  with  a  couple 
of  fingers  and  it  fell  down,  as  long  as  a  pillow  and  two 
handbreadths  wide.  This  was  intended  to  repay  your 
holy  care,  but  the  dear  holy  angels  prevented.  I  fear, 
unless  you  stop  being  anxious,  the  earth  will  finally  swal- 
low us  and  all  the  elements  persecute  us.  Have  you  so 
learned  the  catechism  and  the  creed?  Pray,  and  let  God 
do  the  watching;  for  it  is  said,  "Cast  thy  care  upon  the 
Lord,  who  careth  for  thee." 


THE  HOUSE  IN  LUTHER'S  NATIVE  TOWN,   EISLEBEN, 
IN  WHICH  HE  DIED 


THE  END  AND  AFTER  379 

He  preached  upon  a  number  of  occasions  while  in 
Eisleben,  for  the  last  time  in  his  life  on  the  fourteenth 
of  February,  Saint  Valentine's  Sunday.  Because  of 
weakness  he  was  obliged  to  cut  the  sermon  short  and 
stop  before  he  wished  to. 

The  same  day  he  wrote  the  last  letter  we  have  from 
his  pen,  as  follows  : 

Grace  and  peace  in  the  Lord,  dear  Kathe.  We  hope  to 
come  home  this  week,  God  willing.  He  has  shown  great 
grace  here,  for  the  counts,  through  their  councilors,  have 
settled  almost  everything,  with  the  exception  of  two  or 
three  points,  among  them  that  the  two  brothers  Count 
Gebhard  and  Count  Albert  shall  again  be  brothers.  To- 
day I  am  to  undertake  this,  inviting  them  to  dine  with 
me,  that  they  may  talk  together,  for  hitherto  they  have 
had  nothing  to  say  to  each  other  and  have  written  very 
bitterly  in  their  letters.  The  young  lords  and  ladies, 
on  the  other  hand,  are  merry,  go  sleigh-riding  together 
with  fools'  bells,  play  at  masquerading,  and  are  in  good 
spirits,  even  Count  Gebhard's  son.  Thus  we  must  believe 
that  God  hears  prayer. 

I  am  sending  you  the  trout  given  me  by  the  Countess 
Albert.  She  rejoices  with  all  her  heart  over  the  recon- 
ciliation. Your  little  sons  are  still  in  Mansfeld.  James 
Luther  will  take  good  care  of  them.  We  eat  and  drink 
here  like  lords,  and  are  cared  for  all  too  well,  so  that  we 
are  in  danger  of  forgetting  you  at  Wittenberg.  I  am  not 
troubled  by  the  stone,  but  Dr.  Jonas's  leg  has  become  very 
bad,  and  has  broken  out  on  the  shinbone.  God  will  grant 
His  help.  You  may  tell  all  this  to  Master  Philip,  Dr. 
Bugenhagen,  and  Dr.  Cruciger. 

The  rumor  has  reached  here  that  Dr.  Martin  has  been 
carried  off,  as  is  reported  at  Leipsic  and  Magdeburg. 
This  is  the  invention  of  those  busybodies,  your  country- 
men. Some  say  the  emperor  is  thirty  miles  from  here, 
at  Soest  in  Westphalia ;  some  that  the  Frenchman  is  rais- 


380  MARTIN  LUTHER 

ing  troops  and  the  landgrave,  too.  But  let  them  say  and 
sing  what  they  please.  We  will  await  what  God  will  do. 
Herewith  I  commend  you  to  God.  Eisleben,  Valentine's 
Sunday,  1546. 

M.  Luther,  Doctor. 


The  annoying  business  of  the  counts  of  Mans f eld 
having  been  completed,  he  planned  to  start  home  on 
Thursday,  the  eighteenth  of  February;  but  the  day 
before  he  was  not  feeling  well,  and  though  he  was  as 
merry  and  talkative  as  usual  at  his  meals,  he  had  a 
spasm  of  the  chest  in  the  afternoon,  and  had  to  be 
rubbed  with  hot  cloths,  and  again  in  the  evening  when 
he  was  going  to  bed.  At  one  o'clock  he  awoke  in 
severe  pain  and  called  out :  "O  Lord  God  how  I  suffer ! 
Dear  Dr.  Jonas,  I  believe  I  am  going  to  remain  here  in 
Eisleben,  where  I  was  born  and  baptized."  Physicians 
were  immediately  summoned,  and  the  counts  of  Mans- 
feld  with  other  friends  hastily  appeared  upon  the 
scene.  Every  known  means  was  employed  to  relieve 
and  restore  him,  but  after  uttering  a  brief  prayer,  he 
fell  into  a  stupor  from  which  he  was  with  difficulty 
aroused  by  Jonas's  question,  "Reverend  Father,  do 
you  stand  firm  by  Christ  and  the  doctrine  you  have 
preached  ?"  After  replying,  "Yes,"  in  a  faint  voice,  he 
became  again  unconscious,  and  passed  quietly  away 
between  two  and  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  in  the 
sixty- third  year  of  his  age. 

One  of  the  attending  physicians  pronounced  the 
immediate  cause  of  death  a  stroke  of  apoplexy.  This, 
according  to  the  somewhat  untrustworthy  report  of  the 
town  apothecary,  was  confirmed  the  next  day  by  an  ex- 
amination of  the  body.  The  other  physician,  think- 
ing it  impossible,  as  he  said,  that  so  saintly  a  man 
should1  die  of  a  stroke,  gave  heart  disease  as  the  cause. 


THE  END  AND  AFTER  381 

His  judgment  was  accepted  by  Melanchthon,  and,  de- 
spite the  physician's  curious  reasoning,  seems  to  be 
justified  by  the  recorded  symptoms. 

The  counts  of  Mansfeld  wished  to  have  the  reformer 
buried  in  Eisleben,  where  he  was  born ;  but  the  Elector 
of  Saxony  insisted  on  having  the  body  sent  back  to 
Wittenberg,  the  scene  of  his  labors.  By  way  of  Halle 
and  Bitterfeld,  escorted  by  two  Mansfeld  counts  and 
a  great  cavalcade  of  horsemen,  and  greeted  en  route 
by  mourning  thousands,  the  body  reached  Wittenberg 
on  Monday,  the  twenty-second  of  February,  where 
the  largest  crowd  ever  seen  in  the  little  city  gathered 
to  welcome  the  dead  hero  home. 

He  was  buried  in  the  castle  church,  where  his  elec- 
tors Frederick  the  Wise  and  John  the  Constant  already 
lay,  and  where  his  co-worker  Melanchthon  was  placed 
beside  him  fourteen  years  later. 

His  great  work  had  long  been  done,  and  though  he 
died  before  reaching  the  full  span  of  human  days,  he 
left  his  task  complete.  Longer  life  would  have  added 
nothing  to  his  fame  and  little  to  the  fruits  of  his  labor. 
Dying  when  he  did,  he  was  spared  the  horrors  of  the 
Schmalkald  war,  which  broke  out  only  a  few  months 
after  his  death,  and  for  a  time  threatened  the  very 
existence  of  Protestantism.  Foreseeing  the  impending 
troubles,  he  longed  to  be  taken  away  before  they  came. 
But  with  all  the  despondency  of  his  later  years  over  the 
existing  situation  and  the  immediate  future  of  Protes- 
tantism, his  faith  in  the  ultimate  victory  of  Christ's 
cause  never  wavered,  nor  his  assurance  that  Christ's 
cause  was  his. 

To  estimate  the  work  of  such  a  man  as  Martin  Luther 
is  not  easy.  To  a  degree  true  of  few  great  men  he  was 
a  child  of  his  age  and  its  mouthpiece.  And  yet  out  of 


382  MARTIN  LUTHER 

his  own  native  genius  and  personal  experience  he  gave 
the  age  what  it  lacked,  and  for  lack  of  which  it  would 
have  failed  to  realize  its  destiny.  The  sixteenth  cen- 
tury would  have  been  altogether  different  had  he  not 
lived.  Of  none  of  his  contemporaries  can  the  same 
be  said.  Many  were  the  forces  making  for  change 
quite  independent  of  him,  and  what  he  accomplished 
seems  at  first  sight  so  inevitable  that  it  must  have  come 
even  without  him.  But  there  were  insuperable 
obstacles,  and  there  was  no  one  save  himself  able  to  re- 
move them. 

.v  The  great  thing  he  did  was  to  break  the  dominance 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  western  Europe. 
He  was  not  a  modern  in  his  interests  and  sympathies. 
Far  less  enlightened  than  Erasmus,  to  many  a  present- 
day  man  of  liberal  culture  he  is  far  less  congenial. 
Conservative  and  intolerant,  he  introduced  a  regime  of 
religious  bigotry,  for  a  long  time  as  narrow  and  as 
blighting  to  intellectual  growth  as  Roman  Catholicism 
at  its  worst.  Our  ideals  of  liberty  were  not  his. 
Nevertheless,  with  all  his  medievalism,  the  modern 
world  owes  more  to  him  than  to  any  other.  There 
were  many  then,  and  there  have  been  many  since, 
enamoured  of  the  fair  dream  of  modern  culture  and 
democracy  developing  under  the  aegis  of  the  one  holy 
Catholic  Church — many  who  see  in  Erasmus  and  his 
fellow-humanists  the  true  reformers  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  and  consider  their  program  of  peaceful  and 
gradual  transformation  vastly  better  than  that  of  the 
violent  monk  of  Wittenberg,  with  its  aftermath  of 
bigotry,  division,  and  war.  But  the  break  which  they 
deplore  was  the  one  thing  most  needed.  The  authority 
of  the  Catholic  Church  had  to  be  destroyed  before  true 
liberty  could  come.  And  to  destroy  it  was  no  easy 
matter.  Even  such  a  polemic  as  Luther  was,  the  most 


THE  GRAVES  OF  LUTHER    AND    MELANCHTHON  IN  THE 
CASTLE  CHURCH  AT  WITTENBERG 

Luther's  grave  is  marked  by  the  raised   tomb  on  the  pavement  in  the  foreground  a 
the  pulpit,  while  Melanchthon's  grave  is  similar  on  the  left  side  of  the  pav 


t  the  right  near 
ement. 


THE  END  AND  AFTER  383 

gifted  and  effective  history  has  seen,  would  have  failed 
utterly  had  he  not  offered  the  world  something  as  satis- 
fying to  take  the  place  of  the  institution  he  attacked. 

The  world  was  not  prepared  to  do  without  religion 
and  the  church.  Skepticism  and  unbelief,  common 
enough  in  every  age,  could  not  be  the  resort  of  the 
mass  of  men.  The  existing  church  might  be  honey- 
combed with  evils  a  thousand  times  worse  than  those 
from  which  it  suffered  in  Luther's  days,  but  so  long  as 
it  met  men's  religious  needs  and  promised  them  salva- 
tion, it  must  retain  its  hold  upon  them,  and  they  must 
put  up  with  its  defects.  What  Luther  did — and  this  it 
is  gives  him  his  supreme  title  to  greatness — was  to 
convince  a  large  part  of  Europe  that  religious  consola- 
tion and  the  soul's  salvation  were  to  be  found  else- 
where. 

The  rise  of  Protestantism  meant  not  merely  the 
modification  of  this  or  that  doctrine,  ceremony,  and 
custom,  but  a  revolution,  where  a  revolution  is  hardest 
of  all  to  achieve— in  the  sphere  of  religion.  It  meant 
trusting  oneself  to  new  guides  and  staking  one's  eter- 
nal destiny  on  untried  supports.  Only  a  prophet  could 
lead  the  way  in  such  a  revolution — a  prophet  aglow 
with  religious  enthusiasm,  strong  in  faith,  eloquent  in 
speech,  endowed  with  a  transcendent  gift  of  leadership. 
His  very  conservatism  was  an  indispensable  element  in 
Luther's  success.  Keeping  much  of  the  old,  he  was 
able  to  satisfy  the  inherited  needs  of  his  followers  and 
retain  their  confidence  unshaken,  while  he  broke  with 
the  infallible,  saving  papal  church.  Others,  like  Me- 
lanchthon,  were  willing,  or  even  eager,  to  remain 
within  the  Catholic  fold,  if  evangelical  doctrine  and 
certain  evangelical  practices  could  be  preserved.  But 
Luther,  the  one  real  prophet  of  the  Reformation,  knew 
better.  He  was  fighting  to  maintain  the  thing  that 


384  MARTIN  LUTHER 

chiefly  mattered— assurance  of  peace  and  salvation 
apart  from  pope  and  papal  church.  This  assurance 
alone  made  the  coming  of  the  modern  age  possible. 

Whether  he  put  something  better  in  place  of  the  old, 
or  something  worse,  is  neither  here  nor  there.  That 
he  put  anything  in  its  place  which  satisfied  multitudes 
of  devout  and  serious  men,  and  has  continued  for  cen- 
turies to  satisfy  them,  is  the  one  important  thing. 

Ecclesiastical  unity  was  the  curse  of  western  Eu- 
rope. Fortunately  the  Reformation  did  not  mean  the 
mere  displacement  of  the  old  church  by  a  new  one 
equally  Catholic.  It  meant  the  rise  of  many  churches, 
and  thus  the  gradual  dissipation  of  the  belief  in  any 
one  institution  alone  in  possession  of  life  and  salvation. 
In  the  conflict  of  the  sects,  Protestant  with  Catholic, 
and  Protestant  with  Protestant,  freedom  had  a  chance 
to  grow  and  spread. 

Even  had  Protestantism  meant  only  the  creation  of 
another  infallible  institution  to  rival  the  old  and  limit 
its  influence,  it  would  have  been  a  blessing ;  but  happily 
it  denied  infallibility  to  any  church,  and  thus  gave  the 
modern  world  its  great  charter  of  liberty.  To  be  sure, 
infallibility  was  still  claimed  for  the  Bible,  but  belong- 
ing as  it  did  to  an  age  long  past  and  a  civilization  long 
outgrown,  it  had  to  be  continually  read  anew  in  the 
light  of  the  present,  and  with  its  ever-shifting  reinter- 
pretation  it  served  less  and  less  to  shackle  the  minds 
of  men  and  impede  the  march  of  intellectual  progress. 
Fearing  the  excesses  of  the  Anabaptists  and  other 
radicals,  Luther  might  become  as  intolerant  as  any 
papist,  insisting  on  the  recognition  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession  and  similar  documents  as  authoritative 
statements  of  Bible  truth.  But  in  the  very  nature  of 
the  case  this  could  be  only  temporary.  The  great  prin- 
ciple imbedded  in  the  very  heart  of  Protestantism  was 


THE  END  AND  AFTER  385 

bound  to  reassert  itself,  and  break  the  bonds  forged 
for  it  even  by  the  reformers. 

Luther's  service  to  the  modern  world  was  not  ex- 
hausted in  the  religious  and  intellectual  liberty  he  did 
so  much  to  make  possible.  In  breaking  with  the  Ro- 
man church,  he  broke  also  with  the  traditional  prin- 
ciple of  ecclesiastical  control  over  civil  affairs.  The 
state  is  wholly  independent  of  the  church,  he  taught, 
and  its  sphere  is  altogether  different.  Many  other 
Protestants,  while  recognizing  this,  and  denying  the 
right  of  the  church  to  rule  the  state,  insisted  upon 
making  the  Bible  the  supreme  law  book  in  civil  as  well 
as  in  religious  affairs.  But  this,  too,  Luther  denounced 
as  mischievous.  The  Bible,  like  the  church,  has  to  do 
with  religion,  not  politics.  The  state  is  to  be  governed 
according  to  natural  reason.  Statesmen,  not  theolo- 
gians, are  to  be  its  guides. 

The  political  implications  of  such  a  position  as  this 
are  almost  incalculable.  With  democracy,  it  is  true, 
Luther  had  little  sympathy.  In  his  distrust  of  the 
masses  he  did  more  to  promote  than  to  limit  the  power 
of  princes.  But  in  restoring  to  the  state  its  own 
rightful  prerogatives,  and  releasing  it  from  the  un- 
wholesome dominance  of  ecclesiasticism  and  religious 
fanaticism,  he  took  a  step  without  which  the  political 
freedom  of  the  present  day  would  be  quite  incon- 
ceivable. It  is  not  that  his  teaching  in  this  matter  was 
original  or  singular,  but  that  he  stamped  it  upon  Protes- 
tantism and  started  the  new  faith  upon  its  career, 
claiming  political  authority  even  less  than  religious 
infallibility. 

In  another  and  even  more  important  way  Luther 
served  the  modern  world.  He  gave  Protestantism  a 
new  conception  of  the  relation  of  religion  and  life. 
Instead  of  finding  its  highest  manifestation  apart  from 

25 


386  MARTIN  LUTHER 

the  ordinary  relationships  and  occupations  of  this 
world,  it  is  in  them,  according  to  Luther,  that  religion 
best  expresses  itself.  Denying  the  possibility  of  gain- 
ing special  merit  by  any  particular  practices  and  em- 
ployments, and  asserting  the  equal  sacredness  of  all 
callings,  he  changed  the  whole  tone  of  society.  With 
the  peculiar  sanctity  of  the  religious  life  went  the  domi- 
nance of  the  priest  and  of  priestly  ideals,  and  a  new 
lay  culture  took  the  place  of  the  clerical  culture  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  to  the  immense  advantage  of  society  at 
large.  Mendicancy,  about  which  monasticism  had 
thrown  a  noxious  halo,  ceased  to  be  respectable,  and  a 
vast  amount  of  unemployed  energy  was  turned  into  use- 
ful channels,  to  the  great  economic  benefit  of  Protes- 
tant lands.  The  supreme  Christian  duty  was  declared 
to  be  labor  for  the  good  of  one's  fellows,  instead  of 
concern  for  the  salvation  of  one's  own  soul,  and  a  jus- 
tification was  thus  given  to  social  service  the  worth  of 
which  Christendom  is  only  now  beginning  to  realize. 

Other- worldliness,  beautiful  as  its  fruit  might  be  in 
saintly  character  and  spiritual  devotion,  lay  like  a 
blight  upon  medieval  society,  making  the  wisest  men 
too  blind  to  the  secrets  of  the  universe  and  too  indiffer- 
ent to  its  hidden  capabilities,  and  making  the  best  men 
too  careless  of  the  welfare  of  the  masses — health, 
cleanliness,  comfort,  education,  life,  and  liberty. 
When  Luther  asserted  the  religious  xalue  of  even  the 
most  secular  employments,  and  declared  that  piety 
finds  its  highest  exercise  not  in  serving  God,  who  does 
not  need  our  service,  but  our  neighbor,  who  does,  he 
contributed  mightily  to  the  progress  of  modern  civi- 
lization and  well-being.  This  earth  and  human  life 
upon  it  gained  an  independent  interest  and  value  not 
attaching  to  them  since  ancient  times,  and  the  scien- 
tific, industrial,  and  social  development  of  modern 


THE  END  AND  AFTER  387 

days,  resuming  the  interrupted  advance  of  the  classical 
world,  was  given  its  guaranty. 

The  revolution  in  this  sphere,  it  is  true,  was  the 
direct  result  of  older  and  wider  forces,  and  Luther 
was  obscurant  enough  in  his  attitude  toward  the  awak- 
ening science  of  his  day;  but  in  denying  the  identity 
of  religion  with  asceticism  and  other  worldliness,  he 
removed  the  greatest  barrier  in  the  way  of  the  modern 
spirit,  and  made  its  growing  prevalence  possible. 

As  the  great  prophets  are  not  only  they  wrho  speak 
for  God,  but  who  discern  the  currents  of  their  age  and 
anticipate  the  world's  development,  so  Luther,  wedded 
to  the  old,  as  he  was  in  many  ways,  was  also  a  prophet 
of  the  future,  foretelling  liberation  from  ecclesiastical 
domination  and  from  the  bondage  of  religious  fear,  a 
new  interest  in  the  present  world  and  its  employments, 
and  a  new  concern  for  human  welfare.  Backward 
enough  he  was  both  in  applying  his  own  principles 
and  in  appreciating  their  implications,  but  it  is  the 
function  of  the  prophet  to  announce  and  to  forward 
more  than  he  himself  understands  or  even  desires. 
From  every  point  of  view  Luther  was  a  prophet.  It  is 
the  one  name  which  best  describes  him. 

But,  after  all,  the  overmastering  impression  upon 
any  one  who  has  followed  day  by  day  the  course  of 
Luther's  life  is  not  the  extent  of  his  influence  and  the 
reach  of  his  prophetic  vision,  but  the  greatness  of  his 
personality.  Full  of  faults  he  was,  faults  of  temper 
and  of  taste, — passionate,  domineering,  obstinate, 
prejudiced,  violent,  vituperative,  and  coarse, — but  he 
was  a  man  through  and  through, — a  man  of  heroic 
mold,  courageous,  strong,  masterful,  frank,  sincere, 
and  generous,  as  far  from  petty  jealousy  and  cowardly 
duplicity  as  from  priggishness  and  cant.  Deadly  in 
earnest,  and  yet  with  the  rare  and  saving  grace  of  hu- 


388  MARTIN  LUTHER 

mor,  which  guarded  him  from  the  danger  of  taking 
trivial  things  too  seriously,  relieved  the  strain  both  for 
himself  and  his  followers  in  times  of  greatest  stress, 
and  gave  him  entrance  to  the  hearts  of  men  the  wide 
world  over.  Born  to  rule,  though  he  never  held  offi- 
cial position,  and  owed  nothing  to  his  station,  though 
he  died  as  he  had  lived,  a  mere  preacher  and  professor 
of  theology  in  a  small  and  out-of-the-way  town,  he 
dominated  more  than  half  the  western  world,  and  the 
whole  of  it  is  changed  because  he  lived. 

He  was  built  on  no  ordinary  scale,  this  redoubtable 
German.  He  was  of  titanic  stature,  and  our  common 
standards  fail  adequately  to  measure  him.  But  his 
life  lies  open  to  all  the  world,  as  do  few  other  lives  in 
history.  To  know  it  as  we  may  is  well  worth  an  effort. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Address  to  the  German  nobil- 
ity, 164  ff.,  248  ff.,  254,  269 

Adrian  VI,  Pope,  244,  321 

^sop,  337 

Against  the  Idol  at  Halle,  219, 
221 

Against  the  Murderous  and 
Thieving  Mobs  of  Peasants, 

253 
Against  the  so-called  Spiritual 

Estate  of  Pope  and  Bishops, 

164 
Agricola,   Stephen,  214,  292, 

300,  332,  336 
Albert,  Archbishop  and  Elector 

of    Mayence,    81,    83,    92  ff., 

102,   130,   161,  166,   194,  213, 

218  ff.,  279,  292 
Albert,  Count  of  Mansfeld, 

123,  379 

Albert,  Duke  of  Saxony,  32 
Aleander,  Jerome,  192  ff.,  195  ff., 

198  ff.,  204  ff.,  207  ff.,  213 
Alexander  VI,  Pope,  44 
Alps,  39 
Altenburg,  308 
Altenstein,  Castle  of,  212 
Amsdorf,     Nicholas    von,    55, 

124,  164,   196,  212,  214,  218, 
232,  240,  242,  275,  281,  284, 
312,  327 

Anabaptists,  362,  384 
Anhalt,  Prince  of,  20 
Anna,  Saint,  17 
Antichrist,  138,  162,  190,  193 
Apel,  John,  279,  285 
Apennines,  39 
Aquinas,  Thomas,  59,  62 
Argula.    See  Staufen 
Aristotelian  logic,  33 
Aristotle,  62  ff.,  94,  331 
Asterisks,  174 


Astrology,  71  ff. 

Augsburg,    116,    137,    144,   160, 

336,341,347        . 
Augsburg  Confession,  341,346, 

356,  384 

Augsburg  Diet  of  1510,  120 
Augsburg  Diet  of  1518,  iisff., 

130 
Augsburg  Diet  of  1530,  302, 

336  ff.,  368 
Augustine,  Saint,  30,  46,  152, 

162 
Augustinian  Theology,  64,  107, 

134  ff.,  139 

Babylon,  289 

Babylonian  Captivity  of  the 

Church,  172,  264,  362 
Baptism,  313 
Barnes,  Anthony,  353 
Bartholomew.     See  Bernhardi 
Basel,  159,  332 
Baumgartner,  George,  51 
Baumgartner,  Jerome,  275,  276 
Beckman,  Otto,  54 
Bernhardi,  Bartholomew,  53 
Bible,  14,  34,  35,  59  ff.,  63,  84, 

93,    101,    104,    138,    142,    156, 

202  ff.,  286,  296,  319,  332,  342, 

362,  385 
Bible,  translation  of,  221  ff., 

296,  315 

Bid,  Gabriel,  34,  59,  62 
Bitterfeld,  381 
Bohemia,   141,  145,  147,  162, 

205,  210,  230  ff. 
Bohemia,  King  of,  131 
Bologna,  33 
Bonaventura,  62 
Bondage  of  the  Will,  267 
Bora,  Hans  von,  273 
Bora,    Katharine    von,    273  ff., 


392 


INDEX 


289,  292  ff.,  301  ff.,  341,  374, 

376  ff.,  378,  379 
Bora,  Magdalen  von,  303 
Brandenburg,  Bishop  of,  114, 

308 
Brandenburg,  Elector  of,  131, 

3i8 

Braun,  John,  33 
Brenz,  John,  333 
Brethren  of  the  Common  Life, 

19 

Brisger,  Eberhard,  289,  290,  293 
Brismann,  John,  330 
Briick,     Gregory,     Chancellor, 

317,  343,  358,  362  ff.,  370,  371 
Bruno,  Giordano,  272 
Bucer,    Martin,    107,    198,   332, 

334,  357 
Bugenhagen,  John,  279,  285, 

353,  374,  379 

Burkard,  Francis,  of  Weimar, 
299 

Cajetan,  Thomas,  Cardinal, 
117  ff.,  121  ff.,  137,  200 

Calvin,  John,  299 

Campagna,  Roman,  42 

Capito,  Wolfgang,  159,  294 

Caracciolo,  193 

Carlstadt,  Andreas  Bodenstein 
von,  55,  74,  121,  124,  134  ff-, 
139  ff.,  143,  228,  230,  232, 
245  ff.,  249,  265,  325,  327,  330, 
333,  370 

Catechisms,  Large  and  Small, 
316 

Catharine  of  Aragon,  362 

Ceremonies,  Religious,  314,317 

Charles  V,  Emperor  of  Ger- 
many, 13,  117,  131  ff.,  133, 
191,  197,  199,  203  ff.,  207  ff., 
219,  234,  242,  321,  336,  350  ff., 
351 

Christian,  King  of  Denmark, 
277 

Christine,  Wife  of  Philip  of 
Hesse,  361 

Church,  Luther's  Doctrine  of, 

314 

Church  Postils,  277 
Cicero,  63,  226 
Civil  Rulers,  319 


Clement  VII,  321,  353,  362 
Coburg,  106,  302,  336  ff. 
Cochlaeus,  John,  206  ff. 
Cologne,  69,  70,  184,  215 
Cologne,  Elector  of,  131 
Constance,   Council  of,   141  ff., 

196 
Constantine,  Roman  Emperor, 

1 60,  350 

Copernicus,  Nicholas,  271 
Cotta,  Frau,  10,  20 
Cranach,  Frau,  279 
Cranach,  Lucas,  55,  76,203,211, 

275,  277,  279,  285,  293 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  3 
Crotus,    Rubeanus,    70,    159  ff., 

196 

Cruciger,  Caspar,  374,  379 
Cujus  rcgio,  ejus  religio,  323 
Cyriac.    See  Kaufmann,  Cyriac 

D'Ailly,  Peter,  34 

Dccet  Romanum  Pontificem, 

Papal  Bull,  190 
Democracy,  385 
D'Etaples,  Le  Favre,  265 
Deutsche  Messe,  315,  317 
Devil,    70,    73,    151,    169,    197, 

216  ff.,  233,  256,  284,  310,  330, 

343,   347,   358,  359,  3^6,  370, 

371,  377 
Dietrich,  Veit,  124,  337,  346, 

348 

Diocletian,  Baths  of,  42 
Dominicans,  69,  81,  84,  97,  102, 

in,  116,  185 

Donation  of  Constantine,  160 
Dresden,  51  ff.,  151 
Diirer,  Albrecht,  158,  212 

Eastern  Church,  147 
Ebernburg,  Castle  of,  198 
Eck,  John,  133  ff.,  153,  158,  181, 

183  ff.,  1 86  ff.,  332,  344,  352 
Education,  269  ff. 
Bin'  feste  Burg,  316 
Eisenach,  4,  10  ff.,  20,  197  ff., 

211  ff. 

Eisleben,  5,  375  ff.,  379  ff. 
Emser,  Jerome,  153 
England,  199 
Epicurus,  265 


INDEX 


393 


Erasmus,  Desiderius,  60,  68, 
107  ff.,  156,  158  ff.,  262  ff., 
276,  296,  298,  382 

Erfurt,  ii  ff.,  14,  17,  20,  23, 
24,  29,  33,  36  ff.,  46,  47,  53, 
54,  58,  76,  88,  196,  215,  223 

Erfurt,  University  of,  n,  35, 
48,  150 

Ernest,  Duke  of  Liineburg,  346 

Ernest,  Elector  of  Saxony,  32 

Eucharist,  326,  327,  335 

Exhortation  to  Peace  in  re- 
sponse to  the  Twelve  Articles 
of  the  Swabian  Peasants,  253 

Exurge  Domine,  Papal  Bull, 
182,  200 

Ferdinand  of  Austria,  199,  351, 
352,  374 

Florence,  40 

France,  39,  287,  328 

Francis  I,  of  France,  117, 
131  ff.,  321,  351 

Francis,  Master.  See  Burkard, 
Francis 

Frankfort-on-the-Main,  197, 
211 

Frankfort-on-the-Oder,  Uni- 
versity of,  102 

Frederick  the  Wise,  Elector  of 
Saxony,  32  ff.,  55  ff.,  70,  76, 
83  ff.,  97,  107,  114,  n6ff., 
121,  125  ff.,  131  ff.,  149,  156, 
181,  186,  192,  194,  197,  204, 
206,  208,  210,  212,  219,  232  ff., 
236,  247,  263,  282,  290,  305, 
306,  308,  309,  323,.  3?i 

Freedom  of  a  Christian  Man, 
174  ff.,  186,  313 

Freedom  of  the  Will,  266 

Friedberg,  211 

Froben,  John,  159 

Fuggers,  The,  83,  119,  168 

Funk,  Ulrich,  332 

Furstenberg,  200,  201 

Galatians,  Commentary  on,  156 
Galatians,  Epistle  to,  52 
Gebhard,  Count  of  Mansfeld, 

379 

Geneva,  299 
George,   Duke  of  Saxony,  96, 


135,   139,   205,  211,  236,  352, 

361 

George,  Prince  of  Anhalt,  374 
Gerbel,  Nicholas,  216 
Glapion,  John,  198 
Glatz,  Casper,  276 
Gotha,  68,  212 
Grafenthal,  123 
Greeks,  145 
Grimma,  273,  274 
Ground  and  Reason  of  all  the 

Articles  unjustly  Condemned 

in  the  Roman  Bull,  187 

Hagenau,  357,  365,  369 

Halle,  104,  218  ff.,  376,  381 

Handbook  of  a  Christian  Sol- 
dier, 263 

Hapsburg,  House  of,  351 

Hedio,  Caspar,  332 

Heidelberg,  105,  108,  198 

Henry,  Duke  of  Saxony,  352 

Henry  VIII  of  England,  172, 
362 

Herostratus,  119 

Hersfeld,  211 

Herzbergers,  52 

Hess,  Eoban,  196,  269,  336 

Hohenzollern,  81 

Humanism,  12,  119,  262  ff.,  325, 
382 

Hus,  John,  141,   147,   182,  196, 
205,  230,  342 

Hutten,  Ulrich  von,  160  ff.,  168, 
192  ff.,  238  ff.,  247  ff. 

Hymn  Writing,  316 

Indulgences,  76  ff. 

Ingolstadt,  University  of,   133 

Inn,  River,  84 

Innsbruck,  84 

Intolerance,  325,  326 

Italians,  41 

Italy,  38  ff.,  117 

Jacob.    See  Probst 

Jena,  237,  240 

Jeremiah,  289 

Jews,  377 

Joachim,  Elector  of  Branden- 


burg, 357 
Dachim,  Pri 


Joachim,  Prince  of  Anhalt,  299 


394 


INDEX 


John,  Elector  of  Saxony,  290, 

291,  300,  309  ff.,  314,  320,  321, 

323,  328,  329,  34i,  346,  351, 

38i 
John     Frederick,     Elector     of 

Saxony,   323,    352,   353,    355, 

361,  370,  381 
John  Henry,  Count  of  Schwarz- 

burg,  314 
Jonas,    Justus,    240,    279,    296, 

336,  345,  353,  355,  376,  379, 

"onas,  Justus,  Jr.,  302,  303 
"ost.    See  Jonas,  Justus,  Jr. 
"ude,  Leo,  327 

/udenbach,  106 

Julius  II,  Pope,  44,  80,  183 

Junker,  Georg,  213 

Jurists,  1 6,  378 

Juterbog,  83  ff. 

Katharine  von  Bora.     See 

Bora,  Katharine  von 
Kaufmann,  Cyriac  (Luther's  - 

nephew),  337 
Kemberg,  96 
Kessler,  John,  237 
Koppe,  Leonard,  274,  281 

Landstuhl,  Castle  of,  247 
Lang,  John,  52,  54,  60,  64,  69, 
94,    107,    108,    no,    136,    150, 

184,  189,  222,  264 
Latin  Style,  14 

Leipsic,   32,  47,    129,    196,   352, 
374,  379 

Leipsic  Debate,  131  ff.,  150,  159, 
161,  181,  331,  332 

Leitzkau,  52 

Lena,  Aunt.     See  Bora,  Mag- 
dalen von 

Leo  X,  Pope,  86,  101,  113,  117, 
1 86,  244 

Letters  of  Obscure  Men,  70, 
.159 

Liberty  of  Conscience,  319  ff. 

Licinius,  Roman  Emperor,  350 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  3 

Link,  Wenceslaus,  114,  122,  137, 

185,  224,  249,  289,  301,  334, 
359 

Lippendorf,  273 


Lippus.    See  Melanchthon, 
Philip,  Jr. 

Lobnitz,  374 

Lombard,  Sentences  of,  46,  52 

Lord's  Supper,  313,  356 

Lucian,  the  Satirist,  265 

Lupine,  Peter,  216 

Luther,  Elizabeth,  303 

Luther,  Hans,  Sr.,  4  ff.,  10,  25, 
280,  340 

Luther,  Hans   (son),  302,  303, 
374 

Luther,  James,  379 

Luther,  Katharine.     See  Bora, 
Katharine  von 

Luther,  Magdalen,  303,  304 

Luther,  Margaret    (mother), 
4  ff-,  340 

Luther,  Margaret,  280,  303 

Luther,  Martin,  passim;  par- 
ents, 4  ff. ;  birth,  5 ;  education, 
9  ff. ;  monastic  life,  17  ff. ;  or- 
dination, 25  ff. ;  moves  to 
Wittenberg,  34  ff. ;  returns  to 
Erfurt,  37;  visits  Rome, 
37  ff. ;  takes  degree  of  Sen- 
tentiarius,  46;  of  Doctor  of 
Theology,  47;  becomes  pro- 
fessor, 48;  preacher  in  Wit- 
tenberg, 48;  district  vicar, 
•  50;  reforms  university  study, 
61  ff. ;  at  Heidelberg,  105  ff. ; 
at  Augsburg,  n8ff. ;  Leipsic 
Debate,  131  ff. ;  conduct  in 
controversy,  151  ff. ;  excom- 
municated by  pope,  182 ; 
burns  papal  bull,  188;  at 
Worms,  198  ff. ;  at  the  Wart- 
burg,  210  ff. ;  translates  New 
Testament,  221 ;  conflict  with 
radicals,  229  ff. ;  returns  to 
Wittenberg,  241 ;  personal 
appearance,  .240,  354  J  con- 
troversy with  Erasmus, 
262  ff. ;  services  to  education, 
268  ff. ;  marriage,  273  ff. ; 
gives  up  monastic  life, 
289  ff. ;  income,  290  ff. ;  per- 
sonal habits,  295  ff. ;  family, 
301  ff. ;  work  as  organizer  of 
evangelical  church,  306  ff. ; 
controversy  with  Zwingli  and 


INDEX 


395 


the  Sacramentarians,  325  ff. ; 
stay  at  Coburg,  336  ff.;  atti- 
tude toward  question  of 
armed  resistance  to  the  em- 
peror, 348  ff.;  attitude  to- 
ward the  Council  of  Mantua, 
355 ;  at  Schmalkalden,  356 ; 
attitude  toward  Ratisbon 
conference,  357  ff. ;  ill  health, 
368  ff. ;  visits  Eisleben,  375  ff. ; 
death  and  burial,  380;  in- 
fluence, 381  ff. 

Luther,  Martin,  Jr.,  303 

Luther,  Paul,  303 

Magdeburg,  10,  19,  276,  379 

Mansfeld,  5,  6,  10,  19,  25,  278, 
280,  284,  340,  375  ff-,  379 

Mansfeld,  Chancellor  of,  256 

Mansfeld,  Counts  of,  375,  380, 
38i 

Mantua,  355 

Marburg,  Colloquy  of,  328  ff. 

Marcolfus,  240 

Maria  del  Popolo,  Church  of, 
41  ff. 

Mass,  Catholic,  318 

Maternus.    See  Pistoris 

Mathesius,  John,  23,  299 

Maximilian,  Emperor  of  Ger- 
many, 84,  114,  117,  131  • 

Mayence,  184 

Mayence,  Archbishop  of.    See 
Albert 

Mayence,  Augustinian  Prior 
of,  51 

Meissen,  Bishop  of,  153 

Melanchthon,  Philip,  34,  109  ff., 
119,  123,  148,  188,  214  ff.,  221, 
223,  231  ff.,  237,  240,  242, 
248,  265,  272,  275,  283,  285, 
286,  291,  295,  298,  301,  311, 
331  ff.,  336,  340  ff.,  356,  357, 
359,  361,  365,  369,  374  ff-,  379, 
38i,  383 

Melanchthon,  Philip,  Jr.,  302, 
303 

Merseburg,  374 

Miltitz,  Carl  von,  126  ff.,  135, 
145,  181,  186 

Milvian  Bridge,  41 

Mohra,  4  ff.,  211 


Monogamy,  362 
Mosellan,  Peter,  140,  159 
Mulde,  River,  273,  376 
Miinzer,  Thomas,  245,  249,  252, 

339,  334 

Music,  13,  270,  299 
Mutianus,  Rufus,  68 
Myconius,  Frederick,  196  ff. 

Napoleon,  3 

Neobulus,  366 

Nero,  42 

Netherlands,  212 

New  Eckian  Bulls  and  Lies, 
The,  187 

New  Testament,  263,  327 

New  Testament,  Translation 
of,  222  ff. 

Nimbschen,  273,  274 

Ninety-five  Theses,  89  ff.,  263 

Ninety-five  Theses,  Commen- 
tary on,  113 

Nuremberg,  55,  116,  118,  127, 
158,  275,  320,  346,  351 

Nuremberg,  Diet  of,  239,  244 

Obelisks,  134 

Occam,  William  of,  34,  62 
CEcolampadius,  John,  331  ff. 
Old  Testament,  Translation  of, 

222 

Oppenheim,  198 
Orlamunde,  246,  258 
Osiander,  Andrew,  333 
Otto.    See  Beckman. 

Padua,  33 

Palatinate,  Count  of,  and  Elec- 
tor, 131,  247 

Pantheon,  42  ff. 

Papacy,  59  ff.,  63,  93,  99,  102, 
104,  U3ff.,  124,  165  ff.,  307, 
323,  344,  345 

Paris,  University  of,  150 

Pascal,  Pope,  41  ff. 

Paul  the  Apostle,  20,  30,  42, 
52  ff.,  138,  215,  344 

Paul  III,  Pope,  352,  363 

Pauline  Theology,  107 

Peasants'  War,  250  ff.,  283,  312 

Pest,  370 


39^ 


INDEX 


Peter  the  Apostle,  42,  52,  85, 

215,  218 
Petzensteiner,  John,  196,  206, 

212 

Peutinger,  Conrad,  118,  200 
Pfeffinger,  Degenhard,  57  ff., 

1 06,  114  ff.,  127 
Philip,    Landgrave    of    Hesse, 

247  ff.,  328  ff.,  348,  349,  361  ff., 

380 

Picards,  75 
Pilgrimages,  71 

Pirkheimer,  Willibald,   137, 184 
Pistoris,  Maternus,  12 
Pius  II,  Pope,  183 
Plato,  65 

Pleissenburg,  Palace  of,  139 
Po,  River,  39 
Pollich,  Martin,  32,  61 
Polygamy,  362 
Pontanus,  Dr.,  378 
Porphyry,  64 
Porta  Flaminia,  41,  42 
Praise  of  Folly,  262 
Prierias,  Sylvester,  HI  ff.,  122, 

135  ff.,  162 

Probst,  Jacob,  333,  375 
Psalms,  52 

Psalms,  Exposition  of,  156 
Puritans,  298 

Radicals,  228  ff.,  298,  325,  384 
Ratisbon,  357,  359 
Ratzeberger,  Matthew,  197 
Reichenbach,  Philip,  275 
Reinicke,  Hans,  340 
Relics,  76 
Reuchlin,  John,  69  ff.,  109, 

158  ff. 

Rhenanus,  Beatus,  274 
Rhine,  376 

Romans,  Epistle  to,  60,  70  ff. 
Rome,    37  ff.,    41  ff.,    101,    102, 

in,  iisff.,  124,  138,  166,  181, 

218,  258,  356 
Riihel,  John,  278  ff. 


Saale,  River,  376 
Sacramentarians,  335 
Sacraments,  306 
St.  Gall,  237 


St.  Peter's  Church  at  Rome, 
80,  92 

Saint  Worship,  71 

Sale,  Margaret  von  der,  361 

Salzburg,  116,  185 

Satan.    See  Devil 

Scala,  Santa,  43 

Schaumberg,  Sylvester  von, 
101  ff. 

Scherle,  Henry,  374 

Scheurl,  Christopher,  54,  55, 
65,  98,  129  ff.,  137,  158 

Schmalkalden,  287,  348,  351, 
355,  356,  369 

Schmalkald  League,  351,  355, 
361,  367,  369 

Schmalkald  War,  381 

Schneidewin,  Henry,  337 

Schonfeld,  Ave  von,  276 

Schonfeld,  Ernest  von,  374 

Schoolmen,  15,  34 

Schurf,  Augustine,  237,  240 

Schurf,  Jerome,  55,  96,  237, 
240,  243,  282 

Schwarzburg,  John  Henry, 
Count  of,  314 

Schwertfeger,  John,  124 

Scultetus,  Bishop  of  Branden- 
burg, 94,  114 

Sermon  on  Good  Works,  167 

'Sermon  on  the  Ban,  H4ff. 

Services,  Religious,  317 

Sickingen,  Francis  von,  162, 
192,  194,  198,  212,  247  ff.,  330 

Sieberger,  Wolfgang,  338,  339 

Siena,  Catharine  of,  277 

Soest,  379 

Spalatin,  George,  54,  56  ff.,  69, 
71,  106,  108,  115,  123,  137  ff., 
149,  153,  157,  161  ff.,  188,  194, 
197,  204,  210  ff.,  214,  217,  219, 
224,  230,  244,  274,  275,  277  ff, 
290,  301,  312,  336 

Spengler,   Lazarus,   158,   184, 
346,  348 

Spires,  Diet  of  1526,  321,  328 

Spires,  Diet  of  1529,  328 

Staufen,  Argula  von,  277 

Staupitz,  John  von,  29,  32  ff., 
37,  46  ff.,  56,  58  ff.,  71,  80,  84, 
102,  105,  108,  HI  ff.,  116,  122, 
147,  184  ff.,  189,  275 


INDEX 


397 


Staupitz,  Magdalen  von,  274 
Stephen,  Doctor,  of  Augsburg, 

333 

Strasburg,  334 
Sturm,  Jacob,  332 
Sylvester,  Pope,  160 
Symler,  Jacob,  108 
Swaben,  Peter,  196 
Switzerland,  38,  238,  328,  331, 

335 

Table  Talk,  271,  297,  326 

Tesseredecas,  156 

Tetzel,  John,  81  ft'.,  91  ff.,  101  ff, 

in,   121  ff.,   129  ff.,   136,  221 
That  Children  Should  be  Kept 

in  School,  271 
Thuringia,  255 
Tiber,  River,  41  ff. 
Toleration,  321 
Torgau,  33,  52,  58,  274,  279, 

282,  302,  348,  371,  376 
Trade  and  Usury,  169 
Trebonius,  John,  n 
Treves,   Archbishop   of,   128, 

131,  206  ff.,  247 
Trutvetter,  Judocus,  12,  32,  64, 

104 
Tubingen,  University  of,  109, 

134 

Turks,  120,  138,  348,  358,  363 
Twelve  Articles  of  Peasants, 

The,  251 

Valla,  Lorenzo,  160 

Vatican,  182 

Vatican  Council  of  1870,  103 

Veit     See  Dietrich. 

Venice,  287 

Vergerio,  Pietro  Paolo,  353  ff. 


Visitation  of  Churches,  311, 
312 

Waltershausen,  212 

Warning  against  Uproar,  215 

Wartburg,  Castle  of,  210  ff., 
228,  230,  237,  247,  277,  289, 
342 

Weller,  Jerome,  300,  337 

Weller,  Peter,  337 

Witchcraft,  71  ff. 

Wittenberg,  33  ff.,  46  ff.,  54  ff., 
74,  83  ff.,  88  ff.,  102,  139,  169, 
187,  194,  195,  214,  228  ff.,  274, 
275,  277,  289  ff.,  297,  299, 
305,  306,  308,  316,  320,  331, 
334,  337  ff,  353,  37O  ff.,  379, 
3.8i 

Wittenberg,  University  of,  32, 
46,  48,  65,  109,  272 

Wolfgang,  Count  Palatine,  188 

Women,  Luther's  Idea  of,  288 

Worms,  191  ff.,  195,  197,  198, 
201,  207,  208,  210,  211,  234, 
242,  357  . 

Worms,  Diet  of,  128,  163, 
191  ff.,  219,  263,  336 

Worms,  Edict  of,  236,  244,  321 

Wurzburg,  106 

Wiirzburg,  Bishop  of,  107 

Zerbst,  84 

Ziegler,  Margarethe.     See  Lu- 
ther, Margaret 
Zulsdorf,  293,  374 
Zurich,  247,  327,  334 
Zwickau,  231,  245 
Zwickau  Prophets,  232 
Zwilling,  Gabriel,  230,  282 
Zwingli,  Ulrich,  248,  325  ff. 


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